To Ashes
by ManiacalBliss
Summary: --Sequel to Paramour-- I smiled up at him, my head resting in his lap. It was almost eerie how calm we were despite how there was a war going on not 50 feet away from us. He smiled back. "I guess we’re destined to endure or die through tragedy together."
1. Preface

I never thought it would happen this way… lying on the ground, blood pooling around me, with no sense of hope left in any fibre of my body.

Okay, well maybe that was a lie. Right in the beginning, I thought maybe something like this could happen… _maybe_. But after that life was too good. Too good to be true at least.

And now I am sprawled out, lying here in pure pathetic remorse as I watched the lake around me get bigger and bigger. I knew it wasn't right to end it this way. I knew I shouldn't be doing this, and it was the lowest I could get. And I know this may sound melodramatic, but it didn't matter now –what was I without him? He was truly my other half. And I was broken without him in this world.

I smiled as I felt my conscious flicker.

It would be over soon. I would no longer have to feel this pain that was constantly engulfing my entire being.

But just before I closed my eyes, through the cloudiness I saw someone's, other than my own, reflection in the sheeny, pearl life-giving liquid that was slowly being leaking out from many large slashes everywhere.

My angel's face. My angel's frantic, furious, beautiful face –most likely another hallucination, though nice to see before I was gone for good.

Suddenly I felt someone's hands grab a hold of me and shake me, squeeze me… I faintly heard a sob.

There was nothing anyone could do now.

So I smiled. And I drifted.

**Hey guys, it's me the evil person who made that awful ending n.n" (BTW, this is the sequel to Paramour, so if you haven't red Paramour you most likely won't understand, so go to my profile page and find it ;D)… anyway, yah I know it was awful. But the chapters ahead are worth it, though I think what's going to happen is very, very weak. I won't say anymore, but I guarantee it gets better so read read read and sorry for that horrific ending. Love ya! **

**-jesca**


	2. Chapter 1: Almost There

Chp 1: Almost There

The sun shone brightly on my face through the window, waking me up. I sighed, and sat myself up, staring out the window at the sun and the bright blue sky. Though I knew I should be feeling renewed and vital, I felt nothing. As I always did now.

It'd been weeks. I really didn't believe that. It seemed like years.

Time dripped and dragged by like a leaky faucet. It seemed like every second burned and throbbed in my chest.

Suddenly someone knocked on the door, breaking my train of thought.

"Marie? Are you awake?" Someone asked eagerly yet timidly.

I sighed, stretching and clearing my eyes. Taylor.

He still hadn't let up, and Kayla admitted she hadn't gotten the nerve up to tell him how she felt. I was just a little annoyed, and told her to do it soon. Kayla could provide Taylor happiness I could not.

"Come in," I murmured, and he basically opened the door and ran to me.

He sat down beside me and put his arm around me, smiling kindly. I remained relaxed, unperturbed, though really I felt uncomfortable. I just didn't seem to want to put the effort in to move away.

"So how are you today hun? Feeling any better?"

It was so apparent that I was depressed since … then. He always, whenever I saw him, wanted to know if I was feeling better.

I inclined my head marginally… numbly.

He smiled wider and squeezed my shoulder, as if my reaction was believable.

"You know what Kayla and I were thinking of doing today…" He mumbled, reaching up to play with a stray lock of my hair. I closed my eyes tightly, resisting the urge to bite his head off.

When I didn't answer after a moment, he began again, "We were thinking of going out and hanging out in a park… relaxing under the trees and possibly go swimming. Do you think you're up for it?"

That sounded to me like Kayla meant this to be kind of a date for them. She was probably going to come out and tell him today… if I didn't impose.

I shook my head slightly, and he frowned, his lips puckering.

"I don't want to impose. Besides, I think I was going to–"

"Nonsense! You won't be imposing… I'm sure Kaykay would love to have you there to."

"I sincerely disbelieve Kaykay will want me there, but _oh well_…" I muttered low under my breath… so low that he, who sat too close to me, couldn't hear.

"So do you want to come?"

I sighed. Same old, same old… Kathy and Will were out doing something, leaving me alone for once. Kathy had tried to spend as much time with me as she could. I told her to take a break and have a day to herself with Will… it would be good for both of us.

I didn't even know why Taylor tried. I looked awful… I knew it. I barely hunted these days. I only hunted when it was absolutely necessary; and as a result I looked extremely unhealthy –like a junkie. I had deep bags under my eyes and if it was possible, my skin looked very unhealthy pale; almost grey and sick-like.

"I guess…" I mumbled unwillingly. He grinned and wrapped both his arms around me. I let my arms lie limply on my lap; if I hugged him back it would give him the impression that he could do it all the time, and that I did not want.

He helped me up and took my hand to run down to Kayla's dorm. I held his hand limply, not enjoying it any bit.

He stopped and knocked at her door.

"I'll be out in a minute hun!" She exclaimed giddily. I sighed and shook my head discreetly. Boy, was I looking forward to ruining Kayla's day with Taylor with my presence. Why wouldn't he just leave me alone?

Kayla appeared in the doorway, a huge smile on her face which faded only slightly as she saw me. I tried to convey to her through a look that I did not want to be here and that Taylor had dragged me here.

I guessed she understood because she shrugged, and smiled at me anyway. I was slightly relieved.

"I brought Marie along if that's all right…"

Kayla shrugged once again, keeping the same expression.

"The more the merrier. Now, let's hurry. I want to get there as soon as possible. It's absolutely gorgeous there…" She muttered, taking my hand and pulling me along after she'd closed the door.

We began walking, and she pulled ahead of Taylor, leaning in to whisper in my ear.

"I was planning on telling him today… and I had a feeling he might do this. I'm sorry he made you the third wheel,"

I shook my head, murmuring it was okay.

"I'll just hang back and let you guys do your thing. I'll make up an excuse to leave you guys alone for a moment. I hope he says he likes you as well,"

She nodded, grinning at me as Taylor took a few longer strides to catch up to us. He also had a big goofy smile on his face as he saw Kayla beaming at him.

"What are you two ladies talking about?"

"Oh nothing…" She mumbled in a mischievous voice.

He stepped between us, bumping us apart so he could fit and put an arm around our shoulders.

But all of a sudden, without any warning or indication, I found myself standing in _the_ alley. I gasped, taken aback. I'd just been walking with Kayla and Taylor…

Everything began to appear just as quickly as the hallway had faded away from me. I almost screamed, but settled for blinking wildly for a moment.

It was _him_, standing in front of me protectively once more… With the glowing red eyes at the end of the alley, in the darkness. I shook violently, and tried to talk to _him_, to grab on to him and run away. But no noise came out of my mouth as I spoke. My body wouldn't respond as I commanded my muscles to move.

All of a sudden we were surrounded once again. The werewolves just appeared around us.

"Get out of here," He murmured. I stared at him wide eyed, petrified and not willing to let him go again. I continued to scream silently as he pushed me out of the circle of werewolves, and they devoured him.

"_Damian! Damian! No!_" I screamed at the top of my lungs, opening my eyes.

"Marie! Marie, what happened? Are you okay?"

Taylor held me in his arms, on the floor as I shook violently.

I ripped away from him, out of his arms and lurched up onto my feet, looking around anxiously.

Everything was the same.

We were still in the hallway, _not_ in the alleyway. I was right where I was when I was all of a sudden in the alley. What had just happened? Was I hallucinating now?

Someone's hand touched my shoulder lightly and I jerked away, whirling around to see Kayla. She regarded me with anxiety and concern in her eyes.

"Marie, are you all right?" She asked nervously. It seemed my eyes would not stop moving from one thing to another.

"Yah, are you okay?" Taylor added, walking up beside Kayla.

I raked my hands through my hair and looked to the floor for a second before looking back up at them to shake my head vehemently.

"Umm no… sorry guys I'm going to have to bail on you. I'm not feeling all that well," My voice was tinged with hysteria, and it was very noticeable. Their eyes widened on me as I turned to flee.

I bolted down the hallway all the way back up to my dorm where I threw myself onto my bed and curled myself up into a little ball.

I think I must have blanked out for a period of time, because the next thing I knew the sky had darkened, and it was night time.

Kathy had told me she was going to be staying with Will all day, and she was going to be getting ready in Will's dorm. I had actually insisted, telling her that I would be at the meeting tonight, when I had planned all along that I would not go, and just stay here. I didn't want to see Nathaniel ever again after what he'd said to me at … _his _funeral.

So now I had all the time in the world to think. Or mainly, think about what had happened.

How _had_ it even happened? Why did _he_ do that?

I'd rather it'd had been me than _him_. _He_ deserved life more than me. _He_ was a much better person than I was, or would ever be, and I didn't understand why it had been him and not me. I still didn't even understand why he had loved me before, even though he'd tried to convince and talk to me so many times before he –. I stopped myself right there. I couldn't say it, or even think it. Did I want to break myself even more than I was right now? The answer was yes, but it probably wasn't possible to harm me further. It was my entire fault… if I hadn't been cocky, and had surged forward to attack without thinking, _he_ would still be alive.

A pain worse than my sadistic mother stabbing me ached in my chest, and I curled into a tighter ball on my bed. I was glad Kathy wasn't here to see this. She was mourning also but with her mate, Will. She was taking _his_ death almost as hard as I was, and seeing me like this would not help her situation any. So it was good that I was taking this alone.

I bit my lip, and closed my eyes tighter. I would remember this forever, I realized. This would scar me for the rest of eternity, and I would have to remember this for every single day of my pitiful life. I couldn't take that. Life wasn't worth the excruciating agony I felt right now. I knew I shouldn't be thinking about things like that, and I _shouldn't_ _ever_ be thinking about offing myself. It was totally and completely selfish. Damian –_flinch_– wouldn't want that for me. But if he knew my pain, would he reconsider?

An incandescent tear escaped my eye, and right then I came to a decision. A numbing conviction washed over me as I got up. It seemed like only instinct, a force, not myself, was pulling me forward instead of my muscles –and the only reason for that was I couldn't feel my muscles. But I did know where I was going… the library. Everyone was gone to a formal event again –another goddamned meeting. It was the perfect time.

It felt like the object that I was yearning for in the library was pulling me to it. I reached the library in due time, and didn't hesitate in doing what needed to be done in order to get in. Not caring if anyone heard me, I punched a hole through the thick wooden door near the handle and unlocked it from the inside. _Soon all the pain will be gone…_

I ran straight to the back of the room, where what I was looking for was found. The werewolf's claw.

Smashing the glass case between me and it, I snatched it and ran at full speed back out the door and began to run silently down the hallway. I was actually really surprised that no alarms or anything went off. I guess the school trusted all of their students. After all, why would a student here want a werewolf claw… or even want to die? They had no reasons to want to commit suicide. Everyone was happy here… well, almost everyone, anyway. They would be rid of one unhappy person after I was through.

By the time I stopped, I was outside, a fairly good distance away from the school, under one of the giant trees surrounding the building. I sagged down onto one of the huge roots attached to the trunk. Closing my eyes, I rested my head against the trunk and sighed.

_This was it._ Something like relief, but not really, washed through me. I was craving the end to come, and to take away the agony with it. It was the next best thing to _him_ coming back to life, which I knew would never ever happen. I saw how much blood he'd lost. I'd witnessed the wolf carry him away. There was no way he could be alive after that. I squeezed my eyes tighter and started to mentally prepare myself.

I'd never given a thought to what would happen to me after I died, since I'd never thought about how I would die before. Suicide was one thing I hadn't thought about when I was human. I knew it was pitiful and pathetic to even think about doing it. So what would await me after this?

There could be either heaven or hell… purgatory, since I didn't know if only humans went to heaven or hell… or reincarnation. I didn't know what I believed, and I didn't care what happened to me after this. As long as I was off this earth, and couldn't think or feel anymore. I wished I would just disappear forever… to be wiped out.

The only remorse I felt about this was what this was going to do to Kathy and Will. I knew I was awful for doing this

"I'm sorry guys…" I muttered as another tear rolled down my cheek.

I would be seeing a lot of that pearly fluorescent colour in a minute, I thought.

It was a silent apology –one that would never be heard but wished desperately it could be. It was a shame I couldn't apologize for this face to face with them. But obviously they would stop me before I had a chance to do this. Maybe, hopefully, Kathy would understand.

I held up the seemingly weightless razor sharp instrument, my eyes still closed.

"I love you Damian…"

I wanted those words to be the last that would leave my lips. I knew I was completely and utterly pathetic for doing this. But how could I live without my other half? My mate had died. And it did not matter that he'd broken the connection; he would always and forever be my mate. My dead half that I would never be able to have back. No one else could fill that spot –besides, if I just stayed on planet earth, I would be a menace, a burden to society. No one could fix me.

I took a deep breath, conviction now controlling my actions.

I held out my wrist and slashed all the way up my arms. The sheeny, luminous blood covered the claw and spilled out onto my uniform and the ground like an unstoppable river. The pain of it made me catch my breath, but I continued nevertheless. That pain wasn't worse than the other I was escaping by doing this.

I saved my throat for last; the one place, other than stabbing me through the heart, where I was sure to die if I cut.

I slashed there and felt the life liquid stream out of me. _This was it… this was it… _

Dropping my weapon, I let myself fall and with a small _thud_ I hit the ground. I watched as the shiny blood flowed pooled around me before I closed my eyes. _Let yourself go…_

"Marie…? Marie!" I heard someone scream from somewhere. _Marie…?_ I didn't know where I was anymore, or who I was; I was just floating with nothing and nobody, not a care in the world.

"Oh god, Marie! What have you _done_?" I heard somebody sob.

I felt like frowning. That voice shouldn't be in distress.

Vaguely, I noted that someone was turning my body over. I didn't feel attached to it anymore.

The sounds of something rustling, and ripping, and all other noise began fading in and out like someone turning up and down the television or radio. The only things I felt were tiny bits of pressure, that were probably much harder than they felt, on my arms and throat. Even that started to die away. I was scarcely aware of anything anymore. My mind began slipping.

Barely, I noticed as something wet was placed on my mouth. It tasted irresistible… but then, pulling something out of my seemingly distant memories, I remembered what it was; blood. But it was much more tempting and delicious than anything I'd ever known.

Internally I began to panic, and I only just had the energy to turn my head away. I was almost there… I was almost gone. And blood would only revive me. That is the one thing I didn't want right now.

But my face was turned almost roughly back to the same position, the sweet liquid back at my lips. I kept them closed as tightly as I could muster though, even though my strength was waning. _Almost… _almost_… _

"Drink, dammit!"

The voice was filled with raw emotion. It was so full of terror that it almost made me scared. But I was nearly there… _float, no more worries_…

Suddenly, I felt something jam down onto my lips. If I could've found my eyes, they would've been wide open to see what was being done to me. But I couldn't. All the resistance in me had completely evaporated by the time those lips had crashed down on mine.

As soon as I felt the weight had removed from my lips, and had felt an odd sense of remorse, the blood had soon replaced it. My mouth was hanging open slightly, and there was absolutely nothing I could do at this point to prevent it streaming in. I felt like crying. I'd missed my chance. This wasn't it. I would live another day to feel the pain of _his _loss. Unimaginable pain shot through me, and I couldn't do anything but endure it till I could move again.

But I didn't have to wait for that. I felt myself blacking out.

"Marie." was the last thing I heard before nothingness swallowed up everything.

"…You know we don't have to stay here till she recovers. I told you she would be one hundred percent fine, but I don't know when she'll wake up. We should get going soon; they're bound to send a search party or something soon to look for her. And to tell the truth, I'm getting antsy–"

"You worry too much. Just wait a couple more minutes."

"Why does it matter anyway? She could wake up any time now, or wake up a few days from now. Either way, there's nothing saying that if she's moved, let's say to the car, that she won't wake up."

I heard a deep sigh, and then arms lift me up from what I presumed to be a forest floor since how muddy, squishy and wet it was.

Scenes such as that flickered in and out as I became conscious, but I didn't have it in me to open my eyes. I felt trapped in my body; only able to hear and think, but not able to do anything else.

"Hello–" Someone began jovially, but then cut off. I wished I could see the reactions of whoever had just spoken.

"Is this…?"

"Marie." The person who was holding me finished. I heard one of the other voices gasp. I estimated there to be about three or four people there, wherever I was. I didn't know who anyone was around me, or where I was. But I felt oddly calm despite the frustration of how much I wanted to open my eyes. Whoever was holding me sounded the most familiar, and I could only be calmed by his voice.

"What happened to her?"

I felt the arms around me tighten. I didn't know if it was angrily or protectively.

"I'll tell you later; we have much to talk about anyway… Where is Emery?"

"He went hunting. He'll be back in a few days." Another person's voice answered. I felt a curious pause.

"Hello Evangeline. Why didn't you go with him?"

"Oh, I just wanted to be here to greet you. He'd gone awhile without hunting… he's strange like that. He thinks it's barbaric to even drink animal blood." I heard a smile, and a smirk in the woman's voice. She sounded sweet, but I could tell she definitely had a not-so-sweet side to her also.

I felt the reverberation in his chest as he laughed.

"Yes, I know how strange Emery can be… I've known him for quite some time." I heard the woman chuckle lightly, and then I blanked out again.

Those conversations were the ones I thought most about, whenever I was awake. There were many other moments that I aware, and then fell back into the dark abyss again as quickly as I'd awoken.

I didn't know when I would be awake for sure. And apparently neither did the people that were taking care of me right now.

"Is it supposed to take this long? Was I too late?" The man's voice was strained, and I felt a deep sadness and aching to make that tone go away.

"Well, from how much blood you said she lost, if we keep up with feeding her she should be totally awake any day now. I think you got her in time… You gave her blood right away which probably saved her life. When you found her, she was unbelievably close to death. But I don't think she'll stay in this coma for too much longer, and definitely not forever. Just be patient –I promise you won't lose her."

"_How _can_ you promise that? _There's no way you can be sure." Agony ripped through the voice, and it pained me to listen and not do anything about it. A pain pierced through me at that, and I desperately tried to open my eyes, to move, to make a sound, to do anything. I wanted to take the pain away.

_Somebody touch my mouth. I need to find my mouth. Touch my lips, touch my eyes, somebody! _I thought urgently, screaming it in my head.

"Who just said that?" Someone said, their voice astonished.

_Touch my eyes, touch my lips –anything, just help me! _I didn't care about what anyone else was saying, I was just shrieking those words frantically in my head.

"Marie?" Someone whispered. I felt someone touch my face, and a sensation that had been long missed spread through me.

The smooth, glass-like fingers moved to my lips, which I finally opened and sucked in a ragged breath. There were a few gasps, but I couldn't care less. I was finally able to do something now. And then the fingers moved to my eyes, and grazed them softly. It took me a second, but I finally rolled my eyes inside my lids, and cracked them open.

"Marie." The man said in astonishment. I blinked once, and then opened my eyes fully to gaze upon the most beautiful man I'd ever seen, and thought I would never see again.

"Damian?" I asked breathlessly and confusedly.

That couldn't be Damian. It just _couldn't_ be.

He must be an angel now, or something like it. Maybe I'd really had attained my goal… Maybe I was dead now.

He had started to smile, but it wiped off his face at the uncertainty in my voice.

"Is it really you?" I asked, unconvinced. He looked deeply into my eyes with dark green ones of his own.

"Yes, it really is me Marie. I was never dead." I cocked my head to the side.

"Am I dead then?" He frowned, and shook is head.

"No. Why would you think you're dead?" I frowned back.

"It's not possible you're alive, and with me right now." He reached up to my face, and gripped my hair where his hand was at the back of my head, supporting it.

"Yes it is, Marie. I faked my own death to protect you, to get you out of that school. You have to believe me. Does this feel real?"

He stroked my face, which left an electric current that made every one of my nerves tingle, afire. I sighed and closed my eyes. It did feel real… but this was too good to be true.

"This can't be real." I choked out, raking my hands through my hair, a tear rolling down my face. His eyes widened.

"Don't cry! We've worked so hard to get blood into you; we don't want you to leak it out. Marie," He sighed, and wiped away the tear.

I was suddenly up, and glaring furiously at him, while he still sat on the bed. I noted absently that he wasn't wearing a uniform, like the one he had died in. He was wearing casual clothes –like the ones he wore when I was human.

I let out a muffled scream, and fell to my knees, sobbing. Remembering those times only made things worse right now.

"You can't be real, you can't… why am I being tortured like this?" I sobbed. Suddenly I felt arms wrap around me tightly, and I was being pressed into someone's comforting body.

"I am real; I am… believe me, please… I love you Marie." My eyes suddenly popped wide open, and my sobbing stopped. Even my breathing stopped.

"Marie?" he asked worriedly.

Out of no where, making an instant decision, I shoved him off of me, a good few feet away. Then in a split second I sprang, and pounced on top of him, catching him off guard.

We both fell to the floor, despite the fact that I weighed a lot less than him, and pinned his arms to the floor beside his head.

His eyes were fairly wide and looking straight into mine. My legs hitched around his stomach, and I got him in a position where he couldn't get up even if he wanted to. But he didn't struggle. I thought he would, but he didn't. I also thought everything could fade away at any given moment, but it hadn't happened yet.

He remained the same, looking into my face to find a reason why I was doing this. He didn't even ask. The Damian I knew wouldn't have tried to get out of this either…

"I guess this is to be expected… I wouldn't believe if you had come back from the dead either. I had to get out of the school undetected so I could get help, and I'm so sorry for doing that to you." The apology struck home, because if Damian were here with me for real, he would be muttering nothing but the most sincere apologies. I melted.

"But I did this to–"

My head lurched down swiftly, and I cut him off with an ardent kiss, pressing my lips onto his and moving them desperately, needing him. Seconds later I had removed my hands from his arms and had one slid under his back and my other knotted in his hair; crushing and locking him to me.

He didn't seem too caught off guard, or was expecting it or wanting it himself, because he did the same and rolled us so he was on top of me, our lips moving in sync.

We didn't break away once for about ten minutes, until we finally needed breath. I held on to him tightly, desperately, as he began planting kisses everywhere he could reach; my neck, shoulder, face, lips. And I did the same when I could actually keep up with how fast he was moving.

He turned us again so he was underneath and I was laying flat on top of him, and were gazing in to each other's eyes. He could have lain on top of me, since I was not human and he would not crush me. But this was just as good… as long as I was with him. It seemed his lips could not part from my skin as he held me, and I my legs had slid down him so now I straddled his hips with my calves.

Then it occurred to me that we were on the floor, and that there used to be people in the room, waiting for me to wake up. I lifted my head, breaking our gaze, to see if anyone was watching. Thank god they weren't, but all the same, I wouldn't have cared till much later. My head was too focused on how Damian was alive with me again. I looked back down at him, where he was staring at me curiously. It still struck me that I was with a much more beautiful person than I was myself –he was divine in his magnificence. It still took my breath away.

"What is it?" he murmured, trailing one of his hands slowly up and down my back. I shivered, and couldn't help but smiling.

"Wouldn't this be the most awkward thing if the people that were in here before saw me attack you like this?" My smile became a wide grin, and I raised an eyebrow. My smile reflected on his face, and he laughed.

"No… not for us. It might've been for them, and that's why they evacuated –to give us our privacy. _I_ wouldn't mind if you did this again."

It seemed my beam couldn't get any bigger, and I swooped down to plant another kiss on his lips. But when we broke away again he sighed.

"So you heard us talking?"

I nodded, and began to assemble my memories; I could tell he wanted to know what had happened to me.

"I could hear you talking with someone… I didn't know who anyone was until I actually woke up."

His hands gripped in the material of the uniform I was still wearing.

"How much did you hear?" I bit my lip, and stared into his eyes. They were containing the anger that I felt arising in him.

"I heard you greet Evangeline and someone else… and you said you would talk to her later about what 'happened' to me."

His eyes narrowed on my face, and he gritted his teeth. What I had done to myself obviously didn't please him in the least.

"And then I heard you talking to who I think was Chris. He was telling you I should wake up any day now, and you didn't believe him very much… you thought you'd lost me. The pain in your voice, even though I didn't know who exactly you were at the time, shot through me as well. I needed desperately to open my eyes… but I couldn't do it alone. And that's when you started to touch my face…" I said in wonder, forgetting his anger and marvelling in how he knew how to touch my face.

Most of the anger disappeared from his face too, and I could see awe in his eyes also.

"I could hear someone shrieking in my head… that's how I knew. That was you…?"

We stared at each other, dumbfounded. Could it be…?

"Are we… mates? For real?" He frowned sadly.

"I don't think so. I would've heard in my head what you were going to say before you said it. I would be able to hear your thoughts right now." My brows furrowed.

"Then what is it?"

"I'm not totally sure… I'll think of some possibilities. Right now I'm coming up with a blank. Maybe Emery can help me figure this out…"

But suddenly he had the furious look in his eyes again. I sighed.

"I know why you're angry…"

"Damned right you do. How could you do that to yourself? I'm definitely not worth killing yourself over." Now it was my turn to glare at him.

"What was I _supposed_ to do? Do you know how much _pain_ I went through when you 'died'? What if _I_ had been the one that died? What would you have done? I can't bear to live without you… you're my other half. I swear I died with you when you… when you…" I choked, and had to take a deep breath. I closed my eyes.

"What would you do if I died?" I whispered a quiver in my voice.

I felt his hand move to my face and cup my cheek. I opened my eyes, and he looked intensely into them.

"I understand. But you have to promise me that if I ever do die, you can't hurt yourself. You can not kill yourself."

I bit my lip, trying to keep the uncertainty in my eyes concealed, and nodded. There was no guarantee on that one. If he died, my world would shatter for the final time. But then I smiled a genuine smile. He would never die anyway. I would never be separated from him again.

He smiled, and leaned up to kiss me. I met him halfway eagerly, a warm sense of euphoria washing over me.

Afterwards, I laid my head down in the crook of his neck and he held me to him, running his hands slowly up and down my back.

He murmured after awhile, "… Marie…? Do you want to meet our new family?"

I raised my head to smile at him, and nodded, though I was a little confused as to whom exactly our new 'family' was. I couldn't really care about anything besides that I had him back.

He smiled, gazing at me from under his lashes as he leaned up to kiss me.

Then he stood up, bringing me with him, handling me gently. He pulled me up into his arms, and then he ran down the stairs and stopped at the bottom of a flight of stairs. I heard quiet talking from the other room.

He let me down beside him, and stood close to me, wrapping his arm around me. I gave him an unsure look, and he gave me a reassuring smile, kissing me fervently.

Then he began to lead us into what looked to be a lavishly furnished neutral coloured living room.

All talk ceased as we entered, and I saw five vampires stare at me wide eyed. I looked at them for a moment, but as the silence wore on I couldn't stand to look at them; I turned my head away awkwardly more into his chest.

"Emery, Evangeline, Samm, Victor… this is Marie," Damian murmured, addressing them first, then gazed at me lovingly.

"It's nice to finally meet you, Marie… I'm Emery. I've heard a lot about you,"

I looked over to a man with dark brown, very red hair who was staring at me with unnaturally brown eyes that matched his hair, sitting with an arm around the woman beside him that had wavy, curly strawberry blonde hair, the same brown eyes, and a dainty smile set on her delicate lips. They sat beside each other on a two seated couch, otherwise known as the 'love seat'.

The man that had spoken to me continued to stare at me, waiting for me to speak.

"It's nice to meet you as well…" I murmured; more shy than usual for some reason I couldn't understand.

He smiled welcomingly, noticing my timidity.

"This is my wife, Evangeline, and that is Samm, and Victor," He gestured to the woman sitting next to him, and then the other two on the couch opposite them. There was another woman who had dark brown hair, and was statuesque in silence as she gazed at me. The boy who sat next to her was scruffier looking, with slightly messy dirty blonde hair and a brazened face. I realized they all had the strange coloured eyes as they watched us. I recognized Chris who sat next to Victor, and I was immediately confused. Wasn't he on the bad side…?

Damian, noticing the puzzled expression on my face, leaned in to whisper, "I'll explain everything later… when we're alone."

I nodded, and put a hesitant smile on my face.

Everyone else smiled in response.

"Well, you two are free to do whatever you want. We've gotten past the rocky introductions,"

Emery chuckled.

"And we'll break the ice over the next few days," Samm grinned, a devilish look in her eyes. I laughed lightly. I think she already did. She was obviously very friendly… and assertive. The type of person who got what she wanted, but was still a nice person…

"Well… I think I want to go hunting. I'm thirsty…"

Everyone inclined their heads slightly, unanimously, and got up off the couches, probably dispersing to different parts of the house, leaving Damian and I standing in the door way.

He looked down at me, smiling.

"Let's go," He murmured. He took a hold of my hand, and then we took off, out the door and into the forest that surrounded the mansion-like home we had just been in. It looked either three or four stories high, had a dark brown shingled roof, was Victorian styled and had ivy covered red bricked walls. It looked fairly old, but was beautiful in its own way.

We hunted for around an hour, catching eight animals in total, most of them on my part, and then he found a tree he ran me up in his arms and then we settled into a crevice of the branch comfortably.

He laid us down, and I nestled myself into him contentedly, lying my head on his shoulder. He wrapped both his arms around me as we relaxed.

"So… do you want to enlighten me now?"

He sighed, closing his eyes and turned me slightly so his head could drop to rest on mine. I could tell it was something that he did not like to recall.

"Where do you want me to start?"

"Start wherever you wish darling."

He opened his eyes to look into mine, squeezing me.

"…I'll start at the beginning,"

My hand reached up to run through his hair as he paused. It was obviously very hard for him to tell me.

"Well, this was really all Chris's plan, I have to admit… Do you remember those days where I was… detached? And I was constantly worrying over something?"

I nodded, looking at him intensely, willing him to continue.

"I was worrying over what to do… because of what I found out." A pause, "I found out why exactly this school was started –it was started to gather and create vampires for the sole purpose of training them to kill werewolves, and then send them out to kill off the whole populace of them. Meanwhile, the wolves have done absolutely nothing wrong. The council, and other councils alike around the world want to wipe out the wolves so there is no threat whatsoever to us, since they are considered predators. But that isn't the worst part,"

I stared at him wide eyed. What could be worst than that?

"After the race is wiped out, the council would begin to kill off the excess of vampires."

I don't think it was possible for my expression to be any more appalled.

"…How? Why?" Those were the only words I could utter.

"The council wants complete control, and there would be way to many of us to handle afterwards. Only ones that have proven they are loyal and are extraordinary in some way would not be killed."

I continued to stare at him with my mouth slack, absolutely shocked. _How_ could they do that? The very idea was absolutely barbaric.

"Once I learned this… well you could tell I was worried and anxious. I told Chris this, because I did not want to worry you with it. And he came up with this idea… to… break us up, and he could play on the bad side, the werewolf side. I would also have to fake my death, and I couldn't let anyone know that I was alive though. It would make its way to Nathaniel in a heartbeat, and we would be dead in an instant. I'm sorry to say, I couldn't even let you know. Nathaniel would get it out of you somehow."

I didn't know what to feel for a moment. He was suddenly forceful, looking into my eyes seriously.

"You have to know that nothing I said was real. I never meant anything I said to you. I love you, as I always have and always will."

I was slightly angry, sad, scared, and relieved. But anger took over for a moment. My hand gripped in his hair, and I pulled him tighter to me, trying not to let tears fall.

"… Do not do that to me ever again… do you hear me Damian James Forrester? I swear…"

I broke off blubbering, squeezing my eyes shut, trying not to cry. It was irrational of me to cry; he was here with me now, and that's what counted. I didn't want to make him feel badly either.

He pushed back my hair and moved his hands so they were on either side of my face, making me look at him. He gazed at me with concerned, loving, woeful eyes.

"Never again, love, never again. I promise you. And I am so sorry, Marie. Every minute of it was torture–"

I cut him off with a passionate kiss, pressing myself to him, never wanting him to leave again. If it ever happened again… I would break for good.

He kissed me back just as intensely, and murmured in a deep, alluring voice, "I love you," into my ear during the few second period his lips weren't busy.

"I love you too," I mumbled as we broke away, looking into each other's eyes.

But I couldn't help but doubt his words. He was still better, no matter what he ever did to me. I still half believed the words that were singed into my brain for eternity … 'But I don't love you,'


	3. Chapter 2: The Boys and The Girls

Chp 2: The Boys and the Girls

"Hey guys! Am I interrupting anything?" Chris asked; grinning as he swung up into the tree we were in.

I rolled my eyes from where I was, curled into Damian, lying on the biggest branch in the tree. _Too late to ask that…_ I thought mordantly.

He sat down cross legged in front of us, and Damian pulled us up so we were sitting against the tree trunk; in a more appropriate position for company.

Chris tapped his jaw with his index finger, raising an eyebrow as he stared hard at me.

"You did quite a number on my jaw, you know. It actually popped out of place and it took forever to get it back in place."

I grimaced as he said that, and I remembered that night. Damian kissed my head lightly, and grinned at his brother.

"Well, you did kind of deserve it…"

Chris gave him a look and I laughed, kissing him on the cheek. He always knew how to distract me.

"I'm sorry Chris, but you'd have to imagine how I felt."

Chris nodded, shrugging.

"… I was only kidding anyway," He grinned. It didn't look like anything had changed besides his eyes were not as cruel as when I had last seen him. I shuddered once more, and then I nodded, remembering something.

"Are you mates with Josie?"

He looked sort of distant all of a sudden, and he smiled slightly, looking up into the branches.

"Yes. She's still at the school though…"

I regarded him seriously.

"I take it that since you haven't been together for too long… that you can't hear each other's thoughts from too far away?"

He nodded.

"Yes, unfortunately, we are too far away for me to hear her. But we're getting better every day."

I thought for a moment, before I looked up to Damian.

"So… you didn't tell me. What are you planning on doing about everyone left at the school?"

"We're going to round up some of our old friends that are basically scattered over North America… We're even trying to get in touch with a few from over seas. But we think we have enough people, and that's just to get in and take control long enough to tell everyone what's going on. I'm sure every one of those people is going to want to fight for their lives."

I thought about that for a moment. It seemed like a good plan to me, but I wasn't the one with experience.

I continued to stare up at his face, smiling, until I heard a new voice.

"Hey what are you guys up to?"

My head shot over to see Samm sitting on Chris's lap; seemingly have come out of the blue. She had a huge smile on her face as she saw me and Damian.

"Oh, we're not doing much besides just hanging out in a tree." He stated it in a slow, obvious tone as if she were mentally handicapped.

Samm turned around in Chris's lap with a weird look in her eyes; her face wiped clean of emotion before she smiled brightly and leaned in, bringing her hands up to his face to pinch his cheeks.

She puckered her lips as if she were going to kiss him and narrowed her eyes, squinting at him. She shook his face slightly as she pinched his cheeks.

"Oh that's so cute, my pookie shmookums!"

I could tell she was just retaliating sarcastically from his cheeky comment.

He grimaced and rubbed his cheeks as she let go and turned to smile at me and Damian.

"You guys are hogging Marie! Evangeline and I want to have some girl time with her,"

Damian's arms tightened around me as she said it, and I looked up to him. We both didn't want to leave each other for awhile… we were apart for far too long before.

Samm rolled her eyes.

"You two can survive a couple hours away from each other. I just want to get more acquaintedwith Marie, show her around, since after all, she _is_ going to be living here from now on."

He looked into my eyes and sighed, leaning down to kiss me.

"Go have fun with Victor, Chris and Emery. Go play boy games while we're busy." Samm murmured, smiling.

"Fine," He muttered under his breath so only I could hear. That put a smile on my face, just how he said it –in a whiny, annoyed tone.

Samm grinned wider and practically jumped off Chris's lap, grabbing my free hand, and pulled me up and away from him.

I immediately felt a stinging loss, but Samm was soon jumping out of the tree, bringing me with her. I guess she didn't want anymore prolonging, so she was making a break for it with me.

We landed with a dull thud on our feet, surprisingly to me, and we raced off in what I presumed to be the direction of the house.

"Where are we going?" I asked as we entered the house and rushed up the stairs. Samm grinned.

"Finally I have you to myself for awhile… We'll meet up with Evangeline later, but right now you need to get cleaned up. After that I'll show you around,"

I nodded as she pulled me up yet another flight of stairs and into a room I'd never seen before.

The room was long and the roof was sort of shaped like ; this was probably the highest room in the house. There was a bed at the far end of the room, and the entire right side wall was clear windows that led out onto a balcony.

There was a walk in closet on the other wall, another door that was most likely a bathroom and the floors were wooden and a deep brownish red colour.

I looked around in wonder.

"Whose room is this?" I asked curiously; it looked mostly uninhabited.

"Well… it _has_ been Damian's room for awhile now. But now it's his _and_ yours."

My mouth dropped suddenly in realization, and a moment later I grinned at her. She smiled just as wide and took my hand again.

"I thought I'd show you this first; I just knew you'd be happy about it. Anyway, since we haven't been shopping for you yet –which Evangeline will probably take you out to do soon– you can borrow some of my clothes. They might be a little too big on you…" She looked me over with a frown and I rolled my eyes.

"That's fine with me –thank you."

She smiled and ran down the stairs again into another hallway, and then we sauntered all the way down the hall into another room.

This room had a flat ceiling, unlike Damian's and my room, and was sort of old fashioned and exotic… there wasn't really another way to describe it. There were some potted plants hanging from the ceiling, and it looked as if the floor was brick. The bed was black wrought iron, and the light was dim. Most of all it smelled sweet… it was a really very tranquil place, and that was probably what Samm was aiming for by setting up her room like this.

She let out a relaxed exhale and pulled me over to her closet.

"As you can see, I like my room to be relaxing. I could think of a million other ways to decorate it, but I was really stuck on this idea."

I nodded.

"How long have you been here?"

She smirked.

"What do you mean? How long have I lived here, lived with them, or been on this earth?"

I smiled.

"How about all three?"

She laughed as she pawed through hangers with beautiful clothes hanging off of them.

"Marie, you should know it's not polite to ask a woman's age! But since I'm not like every other woman, I'll tell you," She muttered jokingly. I inclined my head for her to continue; I really was very curious what age she'd come from. I couldn't really tell, and that was a surprise to me.

"For starters, we have lived in this location for about five years. And I've lived with Evangeline and Emery since I was changed; and I was changed in the 1930s."

I looked her over disbelievingly. She didn't seem that old at all to me, yet she still seemed mature.

"What!" She exclaimed, her eyes wide as she noticed my patronizing stare.

"Nothing," I laughed as she pulled out a shirt and a little black skirt. I immediately shook my head with wide, partially horrified eyes.

"Oh no. No, no, no, no, no…"

"Oh yes, yes, yes, yes, yes!" She argued, pushing it at me. I opened my mouth to protest further but she cut me off.

"Come on Marie –it will look amazing on you, I know. Do you really want to continue wearing that tattered and… to put it bluntly, gross uniform? Besides, don't you _want_ to impress Damian?" I glared at her defiantly and a triumphant smile turned up the corners of her lips in response.

She threw the stupid black, and zebra patterned tank top and black skirt at me, and ushered me over to her luxurious mostly-wooden bathroom, also dimly lit by a soft yellow light coming from the vanity slash sink.

"Feel free to have a shower and do your hair –whatever you like. Just look fabulous when you step out hun!"

I sighed, exasperated. Why did everyone insist me to do this? This was no occasion, and any other time I didn't really like dressing my best, and this was because it attracted unwanted attention for some reason, I didn't know why.

After I was all done cleaning up, I felt much better and looked way better than I remembered before. The bags under my eyes had virtually faded away, and my skin was the 'healthy' colour; that very white colour now instead of greyish.

"Done yet?" Samm called impatiently from behind the door. I rolled my eyes and applied some eyeliner before I walked over to the door and opened it.

Samm regarded me in awe and beamed at me as I came out.

"Oh you look so cute! Now come on; we're going to chit chat with Evangeline and show you everything."

Then she grabbed my hand once more and ran all the way down to what I recognized as the living room. Evangeline was sitting on the loveseat, cross legged and regarding her French manicured nails with a frown adorning her marble like brow until she noticed us walk into the room.

She smiled genially and pointed for us both to sit down on the longer couch. We sat down quickly, Samm very close to me, stretching out and relaxing.

"As you know Marie, I am Evangeline, Emery's wife… We've been together for years now. I was the one to change him way back when in the 1400s." I was immediately sucked into this conversation.

I balked at her, eyes wide and a disbelieving smile on my face.

"_You_ changed _Emery_? So how old are you exactly?"

"I was only a few-year-old vampire when I changed him. I was alone, scared… My creator had dumped me in a ditch for dead, leaving me not knowing who I was or what I was. Then I found him; Emery. He seemed like the only one who accepted me, who tried to help me, protect me… and in a fit of passion, I changed him. I knew I wanted to, but this was by accident. I never wanted to ruin his life; I felt awful. But when I told him what had happened after he was reborn, he forgave me for everything."

I listened in awe. I couldn't think that that story was anything but amazing. There was no other way to describe it.

She grinned.

"And I believe I already know your story."

I looked away, feeling like I was going to blush but didn't. There was a pause as I remembered how it happened. As he ran to me, lying on the ice cold ground on the brink of death, and then how he took out the needle, drew his own blood, kneeling over me and injected it into me. How he held me and whispered the last words I would hear as a human.

"… You really do love him, don't you? I mean, you've forgiven him for more than Emery had forgiven me. You got over all the emotions, and you still forgave him after he left you the second time."

I smiled distantly, looking at the silvery white wallpaper.

"There was really nothing to forgive. I loved him all along –it just took me a long time to realize it. And there is no one I will love more."

Samm looked appalled.

"What about me!" She gasped, aghast. I knew she was kidding and I laughed, winking at her.

"Oh that reminds me Samm… do you mind telling me your story? About how you were changed?"

She froze up, looking away awkwardly, edgily.

"Umm… I'm sorry Marie, but it's very hard for her to talk about. Even with us."

I glanced quickly at Evangeline, who spoke, and then looked back at Samm. She smiled half heartedly.

"Oh, that's all right. I understand; believe me I know. Did Damian tell you exactly how I died?"

Samm shook her head, her eyes questioning under her frown.

"My mother stabbed me in the stomach and heart with a butcher knife as we were driving back home from a dance. Then after she was done, she pushed me out of the car onto a back road where no one was sure to travel for awhile. Then he saved me,"

She gaped at me and Evangeline regarded me with sadness in her eyes.

"How… why…" Samm stuttered, looking at me with the utmost shock in her expression.

On the other hand, I smiled congenially.

"I have absolutely no regrets. After all, if she hadn't done it, I wouldn't be here with you right? I would still be living as the same old Marie Alexander back in boring old Salmo British Columbia, going absolutely no where in my life."

Samm let out a little squeaky, "Aww!" and dove in to give me a hug. I merely smiled, patted her on the back and pulled away.

Samm cleared her throat and looked away.

"Well… I guess we should show you around eh?"

We sped around the house, impossibly fast, but I still remembered what every room was called and what it looked like.

The house was so vast… it actually had an under ground tunnel type thing, that looked like a regular, homey, but very, very long hallway. It led to a small house entirely made of glass, shaded by trees and looked out on a beautiful fresh water stream.

The rest of the rooms were just as elegantly and intricately decorated.

"And… here we are, back at your room!" Samm announced gleefully.

I smiled and walked slowly, uncertainly over to the bed. I still wasn't sure if this was really all existent.

I sat down and looked out the window… to see Victor in the headlock of Damian's strong arms. Victor hit Damian as hard as he could, his feet scuffling on the green grassy ground, trying to get away from him.

My eyes wide, I immediately shot up from where I was sitting and ran to the window where Victor was now struggling with Damian near the tree line. What were they doing? Had Victor done something…?

But suddenly I heard them laughing, Damian and Emery especially as Victor thrashed against his hold.

I smiled with relief. Boys fighting.

I shouldn't have been as worried as I was… but we had been apart for so long, it pained me even to be away from him for more than fifteen minutes now. I didn't want to lose him again. And I guess only time could heal me, and make the worry lessen.

Just then, Damian looked up into the window and saw me. He paused and a wide, playful grin spread across his face. I smiled wider at that as he continued in throwing Victor to the ground and pinning him there. Owned.

I laughed and Samm came up and hugged me from behind, grinning.

"Oh, the poor cuppycake lost! And your lucky bugger won," She giggled sarcastically.

I rolled my eyes and the smile remained on my lips.

x

After awhile of Evangeline and Samm bombarding me with questions, questions that varied from Damian and I to my favourite colour, they left me alone, only to lie on my bed and stare up at the ceiling in silence. I would give Damian a few more moments, but not much longer, of his own time.

I myself used this time to revel over these past events. I still expected everything to be snatched out from under my feet, and suddenly I would wake up in the school, _him_ dead… _again_.

A shudder ran up my spine as I thought this. And at the same time I felt a presence at the door.

I looked up suddenly to see Damian crossing the room slowly towards me. He seemed unsure as he watched me.

I grimaced and almost instantly felt something stinging in my eyes… tears smarting. I didn't know if he was having second thoughts or if he just wasn't sure I wanted him. But I thought that was pretty improbable and the very idea was obviously completely and utterly absurd.

Suddenly he was beside me on the bed, his arms wrapped tightly around me, pressing me close to him.

"I'm sorry…" He murmured.

I felt like smirking but I didn't. He was apologizing again.

Instead I buried my face in the crook of his neck and relaxed in his arms. He squeezed me and kissed my head. I could sense his despair as he could mine.

Lifting my head to speak, I looked him in the eyes.

"If you are having second thoughts, it's better to tell me up front. I don't like being pitied…"

His eyes widened on my face; shocked and appalled… and maybe a slight bit of anger.

"I can't believe you would even think that."

I sighed, despaired.

"Then why do you look at me strange? Why did you pause before you decided lay in bed with me? I don't understand."

His moved his hands from my back to my face, his eyes gazing deep into mine.

"How could you really truly forgive me for everything that I've done to you–"

I silenced him with a kiss.

"The only thing that I wouldn't forgive you for is if you die… again." I still couldn't believe he had these doubts. He needed to know he should never think like that –I would love him no less no matter what he ever did to me.

His hands moved to my back and hair, and he kissed me fervently.

I pulled away and murmured in his ear; "I really need a night alone with you."

He pulled away and smiled slightly staring into my eyes with a loving look.

"I was thinking the same thing…" He mumbled, pressing his face against mine.

I glanced out the window, noting how low the sun was in the sky, emitting an orangey glow, leaving the rest of the sky pink, grey and black.

We could probably leave now.

I felt him smile as he pulled me on top of him, laying flat against him as his hands knotted in my hair.

"Let's go,"

I smiled as he whispered it and immediately shot up off the bed, bringing me with him. I would have had a problem with all these sharp movements with a skirt on, but I had forced Samm to let me change into jeans instead.

"Samm said you could borrow any of her clothes, so if you want, you can go get some new ones. I'll go tell them where we're going,"

I stopped him by grabbing his shirt sleeve. He regarded me curiously, a lopsided smile on my face.

"And do you mind telling _me _where we're going?"

He grinned hugely, mischievously.

"You can wait." He winked and leaned down to peck me on the lips before he vanished.

I sighed… maybe I should have used the excuse that I didn't know what I should wear because I needed to know how to dress wherever we were going. Oh well. I guess if I wore shorts or something in the minus range, I would just stand out a little because he didn't give me a clue as to where we were going.

I laughed at my own thinking and walked to Samm's room where she rested in a hammock, staring at the ceiling.

She grinned as she saw me enter.

"Oh no! I'm being robbed,"

I chuckled and went through her closet, picking out some skinny black shorts and a long black and white striped shirt.

"How'd you know I was coming in here for clothes?"

"I didn't… it was just a hunch. So, are you guys going out or did you just get messy?"

I smirked and sat down on a neighbouring hammock.

"Damian and I are going out… we need a night alone, if you can understand."

She nodded and smiled wider…

"Oh, I get it. Are you uncomfortable doing it here? Cause you shouldn't worry about that… we're usually doing something, not in our rooms… most of the time, we aren't even in the house, so you have all the privacy you need."

She looked at my very confused face for a reply.

"What are you talking about?" I asked slowly after a moment.

Her eyes were wide and disbelieving on me.

"You know… do it…?"

It took me one more minute to get it, and then I let out an exasperated, disgusted sound. Why did people always think this way? It was Kathy, and now it was Samm…

"No! We're not going to do… that."

She frowned, sitting up and resting her head on her hand.

"So… what are you going to do? And why wouldn't I assume that? You two obviously love each other."

"… We _haven't _yet."

Her eyes widened to the point where I thought they would bug out of their sockets.

"What! Why haven't you."

She demanded, rather than asked. I sighed, closing my eyes.

"I don't know… maybe we just aren't ready."

She grabbed a hold of my hand that I had supporting my face, and looked deep into my eyes.

"You guys are so ready! I can tell just by the way you two _look_ at each other. What's holding you back?"

I bit my lip, not really knowing the answer myself.

And just then Damian appeared at the door, smiling at us.

"I hope I'm not interrupting anything…" He murmured. I smiled at the sight of him and shook my head.

Then I brought Samm in for a hug and got up, stepping away from her and quickly into his arms. He kissed my head, his eyes conveniently closed as soon as Samm mouthed to me anxiously, "Do it tonight! Do it tonight!"

I rolled my eyes and wrapped my arm around him, looking up into his eyes.

"Shall we leave?"

I nodded and he mumbled a quick 'good bye' to Samm before we left.

I was surprised as we ran down the stair case, only to run out the door and not run to the garage. We weren't driving… that was for certain. So where on earth could he be taking me?

Suddenly I was in his arms once again, and for once I couldn't complain less. I wanted to be as close to him as I could.

He ran us through trees for a few more minutes –we swerved in and out of trees and shrubs. This was most likely the forest behind the house.

Suddenly he stopped.

He let me down beside him, me looking up at the huge tree… and something hanging from off of one of the highest branches up top.

He smiled as he saw my revelling look, staring up into the branches.

"Do you need help?"

I bit my lip. I don't think I'd run up a tree yet; he'd always done it for me.

"Maybe…?"

Laughing, he stepped back with me, his arm around my waist.

"Just take a running start at it."

I took a deep breath and looked at the trunk with a determined stare. His arm tightened around my form… and then we shot off, and I was almost afraid that I was going to hit it full force, but then again, what was the most I had to worry about if I did right? I would most likely go right through it or knock it down… but Damian had me if something went wrong anyhow.

But nothing bad happened and I was completely surprised to find myself suddenly on a very thick gnarly branch, high up in the tree.

I looked around, surprised at myself and Damian grinned.

"See? There's nothing to it," He murmured in my ear, pressing me to him before he began to lead me along the branch.

After that, I really had no doubts in my balance. I trailed behind him with somewhat confidence.

And then after a few metres, we were standing in the middle of the giant branch; this is where he stopped.

I still had the clothes in my hand, and he took from me only to set them down on the branch beside me. Then he sat us down, and… turned around and dropped off, hanging off of it? All I could see of him was his pale fingertips against the mossy, dark brown, almost black bark.

My eyes widened and I looked down to see him sliding down a rope, and a few metres down, finally land on something –a lighter wooden board. I sighed in relief slightly.

"Damian, what on earth are you doing?"

He laughed and held up an arm.

"Come on down!"

I looked at him incredulously.

"Are you kidding me! What is this thing anyway?"

I saw the rope tied around the branch and a little further down as well.

"It's a swing… Samm set it up many years ago. She rarely comes here anymore and she offered it up to us if we wanted to get away."

I smiled down at him, and leaned down to take his still outreached hand. I jumped off.

He took a hold of my waist then with his other hand, and without making me slide down the rope, and brought me down and set me on the large wooden board. It appeared that it could fit at least two people, maybe three. If Damian stretched his arms out almost as far as he could, that would be the length of the board beneath us and how far apart the ropes were from each other.

We sat down, him steadying me more than he had to steady himself, and as soon as we were settled he wrapped an arm around me.

I leaned into him and watched my dangling feet. He kept his arm wrapped securely around me.

For awhile we just watched as the sky between the branches got darker and darker, how the stars began to appear and a slight breeze swayed through the trees.

And then he broke the silence with his voice.

"So, I was wondering…" He mumbled into my hair.

I turned my head from where it was in his shoulder to look up into his eyes; my eyes willing him to continue.

"Wondering… what?"

He paused for one more minute, looking into my eyes.

"Chris was telling me what you can do,"

I tilted my head slightly, confused. What was he talking about –what I could do?

"Chris thinks it's your 'power'."

My mouth opened fractionally, making an o shape as everything clicked together in my head. He was talking about that scary, weird thing that I had done to Chris.

He rubbed my shoulder soothingly as he sensed my distress.

"Do you mind telling me what you think it is? Chris was very disturbed by what he told me happened."

I looked away, fairly ashamed. But he had deserved whatever had happened to him at the time.

"I don't even know what it is. I was very angry, frustrated, scared… a sort of numbness enveloped me for a moment and then suddenly Chris was on the ground, screaming at the top of his lungs things that I did not understand."

"… He said he thinks you may project the person's most prominent memories into their minds again. But he's not sure… he said he himself remembered when I died, and also when he died."

My eyed widened. That was probably why he was yelling "Damian! Leave me alone! Mother! Damian!"

"I think it may have backfired on me one day, though I wasn't trying to do it at the time. I was just walking… and something reminded me of you,"

I kind of choked slightly at the end of that sentence. His arm tightened on me.

"It was the exact day I almost killed myself. Taylor was being annoying as usual, and he put his arm around me… and then suddenly I was in the alley once again, watching you die,"

He nudged my chin up with his finger gently, but almost forcefully as his lips pressed onto mine hard.

Once he pulled away after a minute, he looked into my eyes.

"Come," He murmured, and he stood up, making me have to stand as well.

He let go of me for a moment and climbed up the rope. When he was stable on the branch I began to climb up as well, but when I was halfway up he reached down and grabbed my hand, pulling me all the way up, eliminating anymore climbing.

He held my hand tightly and paced quickly, steadily back down the branch. Once we were at the trunk, we ran up further till we almost reached the top. I could see the end of the branches, reaching for the sky.

"What are we doing?" I inquired, confusion tingeing my tone.

He said nothing, and only led me across another branch until we found a small wooden house. It was a tree house; and most likely more handy work from Samm.

I marvelled at it for a moment; it was very large, larger than most tree houses, but then again this was a huge tree…

He opened the door and we stepped through. It was just large enough for us to stand comfortably in, and it was fairly roomy. There was a futon lain on the glossy wood floor, and window above it, looking out on branches, more trees and the stars.

I closed the door, and he led me over to the futon where we sat. He seemed to have a purpose in his stance as he looked at me with worry and determinedness.

"What is it?" I whispered, bringing my hand up to his tense face. He looked away and took a deep breath before he would answer.

"I want you to try it on me."

My hand dropped from his face.

For a moment in silence, I was totally and utterly shocked and revolted. How could he ask that of me? I never wanted to have it happen again.

"D- … Damian, I can't do that to you. I never could. I don't even know how it works!"

He grabbed my shoulders and looked into my eyes intensely.

"Then this is a good time to learn –to figure it out. You shouldn't abandon this ability Marie. You can use it for good."

I shook my head violently, but he continued to look deep into my eyes, and his hands loosened on my shoulders. His vivid green eyes melted my resolution no matter how firm it was. How could I hurt him?

"Please do it for both our benefits. I want to help you, and this is just one way to figure it out."

I sighed, and didn't know what to think anymore. He was literally begging me to torture him. What a masochist. I could not believe this.

He continued to look into my eyes, waiting for an answer. I closed my eyes and sighed.

"… Fine. But don't say I didn't warn you, and know that it hurts me to do this to you."

He nodded, letting his arms drop. He then sat, anticipating.

I closed my eyes again and let out a deep breath –concentrating.

When these attacks happened, I had to admit I was very emotionally unstable. Chris had kissed me and Damian had done nothing… Damian was dead during the second time…

I exhaled exasperatedly.

"I can't do it. My emotions were out of control when each incident happened."

He suddenly looked at me, eyes hard.

"Do you want me to leave again?"

My eyes widened, and for a few moments he only sat expecting a response from me in complete, torturous silence.

"What?" I gasped. What was he saying –what was he talking about?

His eyes narrowed on me.

"Maybe I was right to leave you before. You really aren't good enough for me –hey, you can't even do this small little thing for me."

I think I may have started to hyperventilate discreetly, my eyes still wide on him. How could he say that and why was he saying it now?

He turned away from me, throwing me a look of disgust as he stood up.

"… Damian…?"

Suddenly I was overcome by that numbness again, and all I could think for a split second was oh no.

And in an instant he was on the floor, basically writhing. But all I could do, it seemed, was watch him suffer.

"Marie? … Marie! Oh my god, get away from her!"

I continued to watch as he looked as if he was having a seizure on the floor.

"Don't leave me… you can't. I love you,"

He flinched violently once more and let out a sound like a dry sob or a very loud gasp.

At that I lost the numbness, and he came out of his trance with a gasp.

I dropped to my knees, tears brimming in my eyes.

And as soon as he had opened his eyes, he grabbed my hand and pulled me down into his arms where he kissed me ardently.

His hands gripped in my hair, my hands flew around him, pressing myself closer to him, and I thought I maybe saw something that was iridescent and pearl coloured on his cheek.


	4. Chapter 3: Awkwardness

**Okeyy, here's the thing guys. This was excruciatingly awkward for me to write… I was going really red and fidgeting while writing it (maybe that was why I titled it 'Awkwardness' ;p) But yah… so don't patronize it too much if you don't like it, but I'm sure most of you guys like a little sexy time, right? XD just jokin', but seriously, don't be too hard ;) that's what she said… haha -.- **

**-jesca**

Chp 3: Awkwardness

He looked the other way as I sploshed into the water; the only thing I had on was my bra and underwear –which was basically like a bikini, right?

I would feel embarrassed and would not think of doing this around anyone else, but I felt perfectly comfortable with him. And anyway, it was just like a bathing suit, and I was only simply taking a bath.

I laughed and splashed water at him. I saw he grinned: it showed on the side of his face that was still turned away from me.

"Aww come on Damian! Swim with me," I giggled.

He looked as if he were debating for a moment. He pursed his lips.

I sobered slightly, staring at his turned body considerately.

"You can't see anything… The water isn't that clear. It wouldn't be disrespectful anyway. Don't you want to wash off?" I persuaded.

His eyes wandered up to the branches and he sighed, biting his lip.

"Please…?"

His head craned up to the sky again, and he sighed, looking towards me. My head was the only thing visible –the water and my long dark hair blocked out anything 'inappropriate'. I couldn't believe how respectful he was.

He began to unbutton his shirt, and as soon as he let it drop to the ground he took off his shoes and socks, and then undid his pants. The only thing he wore now was boxers –just like swimming shorts.

He stepped in slowly, still unsure. He raised dirt into the water, clouding the water and making it murky with each step.

Once he was at the same depth as me his head, neck, pale shoulders and some of his chest was exposed while only from the base of my neck up rose above the water.

He stopped a short distance away from me, seeming to look down into the water at his toes. I sighed, slightly frustrated, grimacing.

"You don't have to be so modest. Come here,"

I reached for his hand, and found it at his side, pulling him towards me. He was tense, and as soon as he was near enough, I wrapped my arms around his middle, relaxing into him.

Slowly, hesitantly, he wound his arms around me, touching my bare back lightly. I trailed my lips along his chest and he shivered. I smiled and kissed his chest before I moved my arms so they were around his neck and I floated up, pressing myself against him to kiss his lips.

He exhaled shakily before his arms tightened around me and he pressed his forehead to mine.

Suddenly I moved so I was behind him, wrapping my legs around his waist and my arms still around his neck, pressing my face into his neck.

He laughed, still slightly nervously. Then he jumped, jolting me and I giggled loudly.

"We're going down," He announced, and suddenly, with barely any time to take a breath he suddenly submersed us, holding onto my legs so I wouldn't float away. I flattened myself more on his back and saw little air bubble escape my nose and lips as he swam farther.

I let out an underwater scream and giggled, all my air going with those two actions. But I soon found out I didn't need the breath. I could survive perfectly comfortably underwater for any length of time. It was amazing.

Once the sun just began to rise after our early hour swimming excursion, we then decided it would be a good time to go back.

I had learned many valuable and interesting things this trip –and I was glad it happened, even through the bad parts.

Damian had explained his actions to me later; he felt really badly for what he had said and made me believe, but he hadn't known another way. And all things aside, he had said that he had made an important discovery.

The scene he had been in was not one he had ever been in. It was not a memory; this meant that I could basically summon a person's worst nightmare in a vivid hallucination in their own head.

He would not tell me exactly what he saw, but I think I had a pretty good idea what it had been.

And then there was when we were in the water. He had heard my voice in his head again, and I had that buzzing at the back of my skull again. This may have strengthened a mental connection in us –I didn't know if it had been what I had done to him or if it was just the time we had spent together and the reassurances that we loved each other. I was really excited that I might have the connection back… but I didn't want to get my hopes too high.

Emery had told Damian that there was only a slim chance to get it back again.

I changed quickly after we had lied on the small white sandy beach in front of the water, drying off.

We then watched the rest of the sunrise, and walked slowly back to the house, biding our time that we had just to ourselves. I was really glad we had had this chance, despite the bad parts. The good parts definitely made up for the bad parts. I'd missed him so much…

He squeezed me, either sensing my dismay or faintly hearing one of my thoughts, and I leaned into him more.

When we finally arrived, the first thing we saw was Samm struggling on the ground as Victor pinned her there; they weren't having a real fight, just a playful one like most people enjoyed doing around here apparently.

Samm glared at Victor above her. He had her arms pinned at the sides of her head, and he basically sat on top of her, a smile and a gloating expression on his face. It was simply impossible for her to get out of that position without giving up, and she inevitably knew it, though she was in denial of it. She still fought as hard as she could.

"Hey Damian –hey Marie. What are you guys up to?" He asked casually, as if he were sitting on a couch, lounging, rather than trying to keep a vampire beneath him trapped.

Undoubtedly Samm would be very angry with him after this. This would probably burn her, and it was obvious she was not having fun like this activity should be for her or anyone. She didn't want to admit that she was beaten either.

I frowned at Victor.

"Nothing yet. We should go talk to Emery about things though –have you been on any trips yet?" Damian murmured, obviously unsure about what to do.

Victor thought about it for a moment, and Samm seemed to thrash harder.

"I have been on a few, yes. And I think he wants me to go on one next week, but he's not sure. We're still on the search for a few people."

Damian nodded.

"Did he mention how many more trips, or people we will need?"

Victor shook his head, biting his lip. Samm was now laying on the ground now, defeat and resentment in her eyes as she panted, her chest falling up and down rapidly.

"No, but I hope not too many more. I don't like traveling so much."

It looked like Damian agreed, his eyes considering before they regarded Samm lying on the ground, looking as if she'd totally given up though was not about to say anything.

"Do you need some help there Samm?"

"He snuck up behind me and got me in a headlock," She grumbled grudgingly.

She didn't answer his question –she only skipped to her own thoughts in defence. I sighed. I knew if we helped her she would be just as angry –she didn't like to be helped, and to feel weak. I could tell Damian thought the same thing.

"… Well, Victor, why don't you come with me? We should go talk to Emery, help him figure out things…"

His stance gave away that he was probably not sure if this was the right thing to do. There was still a distinct possibility that Samm could be offended.

Victor nodded, but he held up one finger for us to wait a moment.

"Come on Samm, just say it. I'll let you go as soon as you say it."

Samm huffed, her lip pulling up slightly, staring at Victor defiantly.

"It's easy –all you have to do is say it,"

She growled, but Victor wasn't fazed.

"Fine. You win Victor –now get off of me." She muttered balefully under her breath.

His eyes widened slightly, but he let go of her arms after a moment's hesitation.

And as soon as he had let go, she disappeared before our eyes.

Victor stood up, slightly wide eyed and blank faced as he approached us. Damian looked to me.

"Do you want to come with us?" He mumbled, leaning down so his breath fanned across my cheek. I exhaled calmly, a smile on my face as I leaned up to kiss him.

"No, I think I'm going to find Samm. She looked pretty wound up, and I want to help her calm down."

He nodded marginally and kissed me a couple more times.

"Meet you in our room?"

I chuckled and nodded. He squeezed me once more before he let go and began walking quickly with Victor towards the house.

And I ran to the alternate root, the outside door, to the tunnel that led to the other part of the house.

Samm had gone down here –I could just tell, even without my extra senses.

I quickly ran down the stairs behind the door and down the hallway. And as I predicted, as soon as I walked through the door I saw Samm, looking up through the window at the stream in the dark, obviously still seething. To her, she had just been emasculated, and was not happy about it whatsoever.

I sighed, walking over to her.

"I know there's nothing I can really say to–"

"It was nothing. I'm not worked up over anymore –I'll be fine, don't worry about me." She muttered, obviously still humiliated. I sympathized with her; I could definitely understand where she was coming from.

Damian used to worry over me way too much –he still did, and though I appreciated it, it was at times overbearing. It was the same when he picked me up, and wouldn't let me do things for myself.

I continued in walking over and sitting beside her in one of the very comfy patio chairs.

She continued to stare out the window, stony faced.

I was very surprised actually, though I understood why she would be acting this way. She was always in a very spunky, energetic mood. The mood she was in now was just plain uncommon to me. But it might be regular –Victor probably didn't know how much a simple thing like that affected her pride. He'd gotten himself in big trouble.

She sighed, closing her eyes.

"What are you doing?"

I smirked.

"What are _you_ doing?"

She rolled her eyes, a small, dark humoured smile appearing on her face.

"… He is such a big, childish idiot. I don't know how I've put up with him for so long,"

I smiled, intrigued.

"How so? Whenever I've seen him he's always kept to himself."

She nodded; a slight genuine smile was now on her face as she glanced up at the ceiling.

"Yah, he does sort of keep to himself around people he doesn't know. But once you get to know him, he's a riot. I'll sort of reintroduce you guys some time and you'll get to know each other. You don't know Emery all that well either…" She trailed off, considering.

She sounded as if she'd gotten over what had just occurred already. It seemed she had exactly the attention span of a four year old –within the first few minutes she forgot what she was mad or sad about and continued on in her oblivious life.

Suddenly I heard a small gust of wind as someone ran into the room and stood motionless at the door. Samm's face lost its smile and became a blank slate yet again –preparing.

"Samm?" Victor mumbled, so obviously shamefaced I didn't know how Samm could not forgive him already.

"Yes Victor?" She muttered in a hard tone.

Without me noticing, she had stood, and was now staring cross armed out the window, a frown on her face.

He ran up so he stood behind her.

"I'm sorry Samm. I didn't mean to offend you –I was only playing around,"

When she remained silent, though the glare had disappeared, he moved forward and wrapped his arms around her waist and rested his head on her shoulder.

"Please…? I really am sorry Samm –I took it too far, and I shouldn't have."

I could see she rolled her eyes and smiled, and sighed before she turned around and threw her arms around him for a hug.

"Apology accepted. Now why don't you scurry off for awhile –Marie and I both have things to attend to."

He looked slightly disappointed, though he attempted to hide it. I raised an eyebrow at them both.

Samm grinned as she saw me staring at her and Victor.

"Oh all right. I guess I'll 'scurry off'." She hit him playfully, and then stealthily ran over to me, grabbed my hand, and we were soon back in the house again.

I balked at her as we slowed down when we neared the staircase. She gave me a look as well.

"What?" She exclaimed, clearly confused. I continued to stare at her incredulously.

"… Are you two… together at all? Seriously?"

Her mouth dropped and her eyes popped open so wide. I was surprised it was such a shocker to her.

"What? H-how could you even…? No. No we're not." She stuttered, completely dazed for a moment. I felt like laughing at her, but I knew what that would do.

"Sorry I asked –but I just needed to know."

She raised an eyebrow.

"And do you need to ask anything else, by chance?"

I knew her question was rhetorical, but I answered anyway.

"Yes actually. Do you… have any feelings for him?"

She stuttered for a moment, her eyes wide and surprised.

"G-god… n-n-no…?"

I giggled under my breath. It certainly did seem like she did, and maybe she did; she just needed to realize it.

She bit her lip, and looked more than a little confused.

"Umm… well I'm going to hang out with Evangeline. You should go up to Damian…" She muttered, her mind evidently elsewhere.

"Okay," I nodded. Well, I'd given her something to think about.

"Uhh… yeah… well…" She ran her hand through her hair roughly before she went on to say, "We'll all hang out later tonight. As I said, get to know each other and such… Maybe even watch movies or play some games."

I wanted to laugh at how awkward she sounded now, but I knew she would not appreciate it if I did.

I nodded once more before I sped on up the stairs and soon, was stepping through the door where he grabbed me by the waist and pulled me into him.

He shut the door and kissed me on the forehead. I could hear a low growl in his throat and I laughed, turning around and shoving him. He looked as if he were falling for a moment, but then he suddenly grabbed my hand and threw me, regaining his balance only to watch me fall onto the bed.

Then he was suddenly on the bed with me, lying on me and staring into my eyes.

I smiled and relaxed.

"So… how did the little talk with Emery go?"

He rested his head on my collarbone; I could feel him smile before he spoke.

"It went all right I guess… There are still a fair few people we have to round up before we'll be ready. And then there's the matter of training and learning how to fight."

I nodded. I had expected as much.

We just lied there for awhile, the only sounds our breathing and the occasional rustle of someone moving somewhere in the house. The trickle of the stream a fair distance away could also be heard, and it was just calming, background music.

The noise that broke my trance, possibly hours later since when I became aware the sun was actually very low in the sky, was a loud groan and shout coming from downstairs.

"No fair! I want a rematch," Victor yelled slash whined.

I heard Samm giggled loudly, and I rolled my eyes. Apparently she was already over the awkwardness from this morning.

I turned my head away from the window to look into his eyes. He smiled, staring right back.

"Should we go down soon?"

He considered, looking up to the ceiling.

"Do you want to take a shower or anything before we go down?"

I thought about it for a moment, and admitted to myself that I did.

He smiled as he read the expression on my face, and pulled us up.

I ran into the bathroom and closed the door, stripping down quickly before I hopped into the shower.

It was extremely relaxing as the hot water poured down on me –the warmth was amazing. And I admitted that I did miss the warmth of being human, but this life was definitely worth it for my own reasons. I wouldn't recommend it to anyone else.

I stealthily washed my hair and body before I jumped out, towelled myself off and then blow dried my hair. I sighed as I remembered that I made the mistake of not bringing clothes in. I would have to wear some of his clothes.

I felt as if I should be blushing, though I knew I wasn't because that would be impossible unless my cheeks were a milky white because of the colour of my blood, as I walked out in only a towel.

He sat grinning, looking out the window. I laughed nervously.

"Would you mind if I borrowed some of your clothes?"

He chuckled.

"Do you think you would fit?"

I grimaced, looking over him. Obviously not.

"Well… can I at least wear a shirt?" That would probably fit me acceptably loosely.

His eyebrow rose.

"And pants?"

I looked over to the night table, remembering that I had seen the washed skirt from the day before lying there. I nodded to it.

"I'll just wear that,"

He smiled widely once more before he walked over to the closet and swiftly came back out with a white dress shirt. I walked up to him; his head still turned and leaned in to kiss him on his cheek. He shuddered slightly at my closeness like this, and it only made me giggle. I smiled then, and took it from his hand, grabbed the skirt and then I was off to the bathroom again.

I dressed quickly, applied eyeliner that was set on the vanity, and then walked out, smiling. He was smiling just as wide when I stepped out. His eyes scanned me, and I felt embarrassed; self conscious before he was suddenly wrapping his arms around me.

"You look amazing as always," He mumbled, and I smiled, though I was still just as discomfited.

I glanced away bashfully, and muttered, "Well, I guess we should get downstairs right?"

He shook his head, a lopsided smile on his face.

"You can. I'm going to have a shower as well –I'll meet you downstairs later."

I nodded, leaned up for a kiss, and then departed.

I made my way quickly down the stairs and into the games room –yes, there was a games room, and it wasn't the living room. I could not really believe that there was a room for almost every purpose.

The walls were black, the curtains blocked out the light from the window, and the couches were white. The only thing that illuminated anything in the room was the TV. It shone on Samm's and Victor's face brightly as they were hunched over, cross legged, pressing the keys on controllers and working their thumbs madly as they played a video game.

Victor had a grimace on his face, focused as he glared at the TV. I laughed quietly and grinned. So that's what the groan and shout had been. Samm was creaming him in a game.

Samm smiled as she noticed me in her peripheral vision.

"Hey Marie!"

"Hey Samm. What are you two up to?"

Her head inclined slightly, focusing on the tv though it looked like she wasn't having as bad a time as Victor was having.

"Oh, I'm just whipping Victor's butt in Halo."

Victor let out another angry noise, and kept pressing the buttons violently.

"Getting your revenge?"

She nodded, grinning.

"Oh, by the way, nice outfit. I bought clothes for you today, you know, when you sort of floated off in your own little bubble with Damian?"

I was sort of surprised at the same time I was amused. She had gone out and bought me clothes? It would be something when I actually saw them –if she got too many skimpy outfits I would probably have a fit. Everyone wanted me to show myself off and I didn't understand why.

Suddenly Victor threw down the controller, and I heard a large crack as it hit the floor and he groaned very loudly and angrily. Samm smiled triumphantly, her eyes glowing.

"Aww, Victor, that's the seventh one this week! You have to stop breaking them,"

"Shut up," He muttered. She'd implied that he'd lost many times this week.

"Don't be a sore loser honey buns," She mumbled cheekily, making a kissy face at him.

He ran his hand through his dark, fairly long hair roughly, sighing as Samm set the controller down gently and walked over to me, taking my arm with a big complacent smile on her face.

"While he's recovering for another rematch, even though he loses every time, I'll show you your new clothes." I heard him growl in the background as she said that.

I laughed and nodded before she ran us upstairs to her room.

The fist thing I noticed when we entered was that there were multiple bags from various stores in the hammocks. It appeared as if she had bought me a closet full of clothes.

She beamed as she practically skipped over to them.

"Do you want to see some of them right now before we put them away in your room?"

I shrugged my shoulders, kind of nervous about what I was about to see. I would be kind of upset if all she bought me was hooker clothes.

"Why not?" I asked, brightness tingeing my sarcastic tone.

She continued in reaching into one of the bags and pulled out a long black shirt with straps and white pinstripes running down it and a buckle on the front.

My eyes widened in surprise –it actually was good looking, and it wasn't revealing either. I smiled.

Samm grinned and shook it slightly in her hands as she continued to hold it up.

"Likey?" She squealed. I laughed and nodded.

She flashed off a few more numbers rapidly, and I was actually really surprised at what she'd chosen for me. They were all very casual but striking.

And then she gave me the first few bags to bring up. I took five bags in my arms, and walked, did not run, to my room where I had to struggle slightly with all the bags in my arms, though they were practically weightless, to open the door.

When I finally opened the door, I was shocked and my eyes widened as I saw Damian walk out of the bathroom with nothing but a towel around his waist, and his hair wet.

He looked up as he heard me and paused. And then I giggled.

He grinned and shook his head, walking towards the closet. I did as well, and began putting away clothes as he chose an outfit of his own.

I quickly put everything away, glancing at him and then looking away from him swiftly every few seconds which made him laugh, and then we both left the closet; him, with clothes that he was going to change into in the bathroom and me, back to Samm's room for more clothes.

We finished up quickly, and soon everyone in the house was all gathered downstairs in the games room on the couches.

I met Damian on one of the loveseats and sat next to him before I leaned and burrowed myself into him.

He put an arm around me as I watched other people settle into the couches.

But Evangeline and Samm were bickering with a mostly silent Chris as they all entered and sat down.

"Chris, don't even think of going out to hunt humans while you live here! You're living in a strictly animal blood vampire house, so of course what you're thinking of doing is morally wrong and unethical." Samm and Evangeline were complaining.

I looked at him with an eyebrow raised. I didn't know how he could do it; he, like Damian and I could remember his past. So how could he have been drinking from humans for all these years? I didn't even know that he did hunt humans; I thought he was a vegetarian like his brother.

Chris rolled his eyes as Damian spoke up.

"They're right Chris; you're living in their house right now so you should be respecting their rules. You can't be craving human blood _that_ badly –you've probably been desensitised to it by now because you've been feeding off of animals for awhile –ever since you and I arrived here."

Chris grinned as he looked at me from Damian.

"Hey, you probably miss and still crave the taste of _her_. And that was awhile ago now!"

He inclined his head towards me as he said _her_, and I immediately looked up to Damian, frowning, instantaneously confused.

He had never tasted my blood before, not even to change me… He had injected me with his blood from a _needle_ to change me.

He grimaced at his brother, and my eyes widened slightly.

"Damian, I've never seen you drink from me before…" I murmured, looking at his face which with a slight drop of his head, was partially hidden from me. He seemed ashamed as he closed his eyes and sighed. I was immediately concerned, bringing my hand up to run through his hair. This always calmed him somewhat.

"It was when I changed you,"

I frowned, willing him with my eyes to continue.

Suddenly he looked up, and gave everyone a look. In the next moment, everyone was silent, giving us quiet to speak. It was probably so they could listen as well, and I didn't know if he minded or I minded. I had a feeling this may be uncomfortable.

"Everything was really very overwhelming when I did it; all of the emotions… all of the blood. You've always smelled irresistibly amazing, even as a vampire though not in the way human blood calls to a vampire, and I always had a hard time controlling myself when I was around you. There were a few close calls that you don't even know about,"

This was a sign for me to remember with him; he was welcoming me in. I was suddenly in his head, scanning his thoughts for those particular memories. They came to me instantly.

The first thing that he recalled for me was when he first saw me.

He could smell me as soon as he first laid eyes on me, unhealthy looking, and pale white me. I was different; I smelled unlike anyone else he'd ever known. It drew him to me. Not only that, he was fascinated with me the moment he saw me. He was for the most part surprised, and overwhelmed by it.

Then it skipped to… when I was in the hospital. I was somewhat shocked as I saw myself lying in the hospital bed in a hopelessly deep sleep.

He sat beside me for a period of time as I slept, for every night I was in the hospital, holding my hand. Though he almost instantly realized that it would not be good enough; he had to actually be touching the spot I was most hurt; my ribs.

This sent a flash of red hot embarrassment through me in my own head. He only laughed sort of nervously in his head at that, seeming self-conscious of himself.

That brought a small smile to my face.

_Don't worry Dami… I love you no less and I appreciate what you did. _

He smiled as well.

Continuing in the memory, he then moved and laid himself down beside me on the hospital bed, moving the blankets so he could put an arm around my middle, a little tense at first but then he relaxed, holding me close to him.

I realized something with shock, because it suddenly connected in my head that _that_ was why I was so cold in the morning when I had woken up. That had basically been happening the whole time I had been there.

Then it jumped ahead a bit to the time just after I'd wandered out of the building and fell, leaving a big gash on my arm and bloodying everything.

I noted first that in this memory, the first thing was concern for me, but he thought to himself that he couldn't run out from his cover in the trees and help me; show himself to me. Then I would think something was up, which was something he did not want at the time.

The next feeling was overpowering bloodlust. He strained himself to stay there for the next few seconds, him, the three hundred and fifty year old vampire with unbelievable resistance. It was so strong I was surprised he even tried to resist and hadn't given in. But at that point he felt a strong attachment to me; a connection, and for a reason unknown to me, he would not bear to hurt me.

So _that_ had been the snap I had heard in the forest. I hadn't needed to worry about being eaten by wolves or bears; I had needed to be worried that _he_ would have eaten me.

There were many other times as well, but as he became more and more used to me, it was less of a close call. The time I had put my finger over his lips in the car to silence him, the time he had hugged me and apologized because he realized my time would be soon…

Then there was the dance, though this time, surprisingly, it was not a moment of lust. It was… calming to him …Rhythmic and alluring was what my heartbeat was to him, but he was absolutely calm, and … tranquil. That was why he had said 'it's nice to hear a beating heart…'

He felt as if he belonged there with me, though he knew he could never have me… because he felt as if I was too good for him. That he was evil and I was a good person that did not deserve what he was about to do to me.

I was awed at the emotions he felt.

All of a sudden it skipped to when I laid dying on the road. I saw through his eyes how he had run to me out of the trees and witnessed my broken and bleeding body, and felt the awful ripping sensation, feeling an extreme loss, and then guilt.

He really hadn't wanted to do it. At that moment, he realized… that he loved me as he drew his blood and he kneeled over me in the moonlight.

And after he whispered in my ear, kissed my forehead and injected me with blood, he noticed just how much my blood was calling him, screaming at him.

And then he dove in, biting my chest, drinking, and then, wanting more, he moved to my neck. But he restrained himself long enough to push himself off me as I began to change.

I wasn't surprised I didn't remember anything; at that point I was experiencing enough pain. He felt even worse because he knew that.

He watched me squirm as I was dying… and when my heart finally gave out, he felt as if he died with me as well.

I opened my eyes, looking up to him in wonder. He really had loved me the whole time.

My hand gripped in back of his hair and I leaned in; kissing him ardently, before I leaned away, smirking as I glanced down my shirt to see a faint moon crescent, iridescent scar. I would look at the one I had on my throat later when I had a mirror.

I let out a mock exasperated exhale.

"Uh god Damian, why there!"

He laughed and grinned, leaning down to kiss me on the neck. I felt him nip my throat and I giggled and beamed at him.

People had started talking quietly again, and when they noticed us smiling they all laughed before continuing in talking normally.

Suddenly Samm's voice overpowered everyone else's voices.

"We have to have a games night peoples!"

We all paused and looked at her. And I grinned.

"Victor might lose against you again though."

His head turned to me, and his eyes narrowed.

Samm looked at me as well, and burst out laughing.

"That, hun, was priceless." She giggled.

I laid my head back on Damian's chest with a smile, closing my eyes. I kept my eyes closed as I spoke.

"I think we should do it tomorrow –after all, do we have enough games to play? Maybe we could go shopping, because I actually haven't been in real society, or a town, since I was human. What do you say?"

Samm thought for a moment, her two forefingers lightly touching her chin as she stared at me with pursed lips. Then she smiled brightly.

"That sounds like a good plan. And I could think of a few new games that I want to pick up –besides, the old ones are getting boring, aren't they?"

She looked to Victor, Emery and Evangeline with a questioning stare. They shrugged, and Samm clapped her hands, squealing despite their lack of concern.

I looked up into Damian's eyes as he stared at me.

"Do you think I'm ready?"

He smiled, and pressed his forehead to mine.

"I think you've been ready for awhile."


	5. Chapter 4: Games Night

Chp. 4: Games Night

"Come on Marie! You're the one who wanted to go this morning. Hurry up," Samm yelled like a yodeler upstairs as I hurried to pull a shirt over my head.

Damian laughed at me as he stared up at the ceiling while he sat on the bed. Once I got it on he continued in watching me run to the bathroom, apply eyeliner and put on shoes.

"Samm is right you know,"

I grimaced slightly. We'd spent all night playing in the forest –every one of us. We played man hunt, which is tag and hide and seek in the dark, though it's not really in the dark because we can see perfectly in the dark.

"I know…" I sighed.

I was suddenly depressed at the thought that he wasn't coming with me –but he needed to go on another trip to meet people –recruit people– with Evangeline and Emery. Chris was going to hang out here, and Victor and Samm and I were going out.

Damian would most likely be back later than us, and I didn't want to be away from him that long. It made me antsy. What if something happened?

He was suddenly behind me, wrapping his arms around my waist and pressing me to him. He buried his face in my hair, near my ear.

"It won't be that long –I promise. Besides, I don't want to expose you to anything yet. You should have fun today with Samm and Victor, and the next thing you know I'll be back."

I turned my head to look at him, and he kissed me, pressing his lips to mine fervently.

When we pulled away, Samm yelled, impatiently this time, up the stairs that I'd better get my butt downstairs or else there would be dire consequences. I laughed and hugged him once more, revelling in the moment, irrationally afraid that something would happen.

And then I left, running down the stairs where Samm immediately took my arm and led me to the garage.

She led me to a red Solstice with the top down, and yet again, I was surprised at how fast, even though the car stood still, it looked. It was the same with the five or so more cars parked in here.

I recognized Chris's old car, and Damian's Audi sitting next to it.

Samm giggled as she saw my eyes widen.

"Do you like? I personally love it. Not only is it a beast, but it is _so_ fast –Victor is a bit of a grease monkey and loves tuning up cars. I have fun racing him in his BMW. I cream him every time in that area as well, because though he may be a better mechanic, I am a way better driver."

I grinned and stepped into the car, sitting down a little slower than normal and did up my seatbelt. She didn't even bother; she just continued in putting the key in the ignition and turning it quickly, backing up without a glance behind her.

I hadn't been awake the last time I had come here, so all my surroundings interested me, though everything for awhile was still surrounded in lush green forestry.

When I asked Samm where we were, she said we were a good five hours away from where I had been before at the school. Apparently the school had been around Ashcroft, which had been quite a fair distance away from Salmo. We were more in the vicinity of Vancouver now.

One thing was for sure –I didn't miss the people I used to know in Salmo. But I could admit I missed the scenery a bit. It was home for the longest time –but I'd moved onto to other, better things now.

It was then, as we just began to glimpse civilization, because of Vancouver's rainy weather that we had to put up the hood of the car. As if to compensate, she turned on the radio, tuned it to a modern music station and cranked it to an ear shattering level. Then she accelerated and we both grinned and yelled, somewhat singing along with songs we knew.

We soon reached the outskirts of a large city, and it was especially large to me because I'd never seen taller buildings. After that, we drove down crowded roads, through beeping traffic, towards what I presumed would be a shopping centre.

I definitely felt like a child, or a tourist, looking up at everything in wide eyed wonder. Samm was obviously amused by this as she watched me stare in awe at the flashy signs adorning every building and the higher tech crossing signals.

Eventually, Samm found her way down the concrete ramp way and parked among the hundreds of other cars.

She shut off the car, turning off the music that attracted the few people that had stopped and stared at us as we'd parked. We continued in getting out, me trying to ignore the peoples' perplexing stares and Samm seeming not to notice at all, before taking the elevator up and beholding the very packed, bustling shopping mall.

And what was the most surprising thing to me was that I didn't have much of a problem at all with trying to wane my thirst. It was surprising to me that I did not feel the urge to kill anyone.

Samm winked at me and took my arm with hers as we began to twist through the throng of people.

"So darling, where do you want to stop off first?" She exclaimed, obviously not too concerned what other people close around us would think. A small smile turned up the corners of my lips.

"I thought we were out just to get games!"

She looked at me with an over-dramatic surprised expression.

"Of course not! Why would we come here for just games. Since you didn't get to pick your own stuff the other day, though I know you like everything I picked for you, I though maybe you'd want to get accessories or something. Anything you want, it's my homecoming present."

My eyes widened in surprise, though I was delighted at the fact that I was really actually sharing a home with her. If luck was with us, it would be home for awhile longer as well.

"Oh Samm that's too much. I couldn't possibly ask anything more of you. You bought me all those clothes –that was too much as it is!"

She wrapped he arm around me, smiling hugely.

"Nonsense, Marie. We've been alive so long we have enough money to last us many, many more expensive lifetimes to come. We still are working! If we get bored at times, we take up random jobs, go to school again. Believe me, we can spare enough money to get you more than just clothes," She exclaimed in a childishly obvious tone.

I sighed and rolled my eyes, still not all that comfortable with the idea.

We sauntered through the stores, stopping off in almost every single one.

Sometimes Samm and I would do things that attracted people's attention; not on purpose, but they would stare anyhow, and it actually made me really uneasy.

As we skipped to the next store, a store full of various colourful, eye catchy articles of clothing, accessories, etc… I finally had to ask Samm a question that was starting to bother me like a splinter in my mind.

"Samm, how can you cope with all these people staring at us?"

After a pause she shrugged and laughed.

"It used to bother me awhile ago. But you'll get used to it –after all, this is your first trip into civil, human society. I take it you've never been to a city this big, have you?"

I shook my head, sort of embarrassed all of a sudden. Yaletown was probably the only city that came close.

Her expression was warm and understanding.

"Don't worry about it. We're going to change all of that soon enough –oh my gosh! Those are the most amazing…"

She got distracted for only a moment, and then pointed at something in a store and pulled me in. I sighed and smiled, letting her drag me behind her.

By the time we were finished, we'd only bought a few new games that she claimed they had yet to play, but the rest of the merchandise was either for me or her. She seemed content as she led us back to the car, obviously having a perfect memory of the image where it was parked, hours later. We must have gone through all of the stores. And I was all too happy about this because the longer I was distracted, the quicker I would see him again.

I smiled as I set my bags in the trunk and sat in the passenger seat beside her. She quickly thrust the key in the ignition and revved the engine, causing bystanders to stare yet again. I tried to ignore it as we sped off, up the ramp and onto the street. We didn't even have to wait for traffic as she pulled recklessly out into the lane, making the turn and driving too fast down the road before the huge red Hummer could crush us.

Samm rolled down the windows, causing the wind to whirl in and scream through, making my long hair fly everywhere in my face. She once again blasted the music and stuck her head out the window for a brief second to scream slash whoop at traffic and innocent citizens walking along the sidewalks. Some of them grimaced at the shrill sound that was almost too loud to be normal, and others grinned and hollered back.

I smiled widely as she rolled the windows back up because it yet again began to rain.

She began to bop her head to the music and I did as well, not as surprised as I would have been if I had first met her about her sudden burst of energy.

With that distraction, we were soon pulling up into the driveway, and twilight was just falling. I smiled complacently –he would be back soon. I could even sense it, which was a good thing. I think the connection as getting stronger, though it didn't develop as fast as it did when we first had it.

Samm parked the car in the garage, closing the door behind us, and we got out only to quickly grab the bags out of the trunk and bring the games to the games room and the rest of the stuff up to our rooms. When we were done putting everything in order, me trying to ignore the fact that I had to wait a few more hours, we rushed downstairs to the games room where we laid ourselves out on the big black, leather comfy couches.

She could obviously pick up my distress; she let out a slightly exasperated exhale.

"Don't worry Marie –he'll be here soon enough. Sheesh, I can't believe how wound up you are without him. I can live without a guy! And I certainly don't need someone at my side all the time… I guess I can't imagine what you go through everyday. And especially all the worrying, waiting and drawbacks," She trailed off, in thought.

I smirked. That was Samm for you –and she knew herself well. She probably could live without anyone, though I knew having people around, for her, just made life more fun and a little better. I wondered what she thought of Victor –she certainly did seem to like him, but maybe that was just her magnetic personality. On that thought, I could stop the words that came out of my mouth.

"Samm, I really can't understand how you two aren't attracted to each other. You are constantly around each other, and I can just see a connection!"

I'd bet that if you asked Victor, when he was out of hearing range of Samm, if he had any feelings for her he would say yes.

She frowned a moment later though.

"Where's Chris? I thought he was going to stay here."

I rolled my eyes. No one needed to be worried about him –he was one who could definitely survive on his own. But I guess I shouldn't be saying that, because he was with Josie after all.

"He probably went off to hunt or something," I mumbled.

Samm nodded distantly, seeming as if she was in deep thought for a moment. She remained in this stance for a few minutes, and finally broke out of the trance with a shake of her head and widening her eyes.

And then suddenly she was sitting beside me, beaming at me.

"Well, we might as well do something while we're stuck here alone. Do you want to go hunting?"

I shook my head slowly, a smile forming on my lips.

"I have a better idea –Samantha Hawthorne, I challenge you to a street race."

She grinned and shook her index finger at me a moment later.

"Are you sure you want to do that Ms. Marie Alexander? Aren't thou afraid of getting thy butt kicked?"

I laughed hysterically and shook my head, pointing at the remote controls for the gaming system. She smiled wider before she picked up the controls, put in the game and walked back swiftly only to plop down onto the couch beside me.

We started the game, and before we could take off from the start, she asked once more, "Are you sure you want to do this –because I know you're going to keep wanting rematches like Victor does, and to tell you the truth, I beat anyone every time we play so it's annoying when people can accept that I own at this game."

I laughed, shook my head, and started pressing the controls madly.

But Samm was obviously right, because almost instantly I was behind, swerving and running into the sidelines. She giggled and sped ahead in her Ferrari, grinning.

I let out a frustrated noise, exasperated that I was already basically beaten. Well hey; it was my first time playing.

But out of the blue, as we were getting close to the finish line, I felt breathing and the brush of lips on the side of my neck.

I froze up as I felt someone's arms wrap around my middle and pull me into them. And I shivered as I felt his lips on my throat. The controller dropped form my hands as he moved his hand to my chin and nudged my head over slightly so I looked directly into his shadowed bright green eyes.

He pressed his lips to mine ardently, and I finally moved my frozen hands, knotting them in his hair.

Suddenly I heard Samm jump up and down, announcing gleefully, "I won! I won; I told you so, in your face!"

But clearly I was too distracted to laugh. I was now fully turned around, my arms around him, still kissing him just as urgently.

He pulled us up and I buried my head in his chest, hugging him tightly as the others entered the room. I couldn't believe how much I'd missed him…

"Ah, is there nothing more beautiful than a lovers' reunion?" Victor said in a lilting, sarcastic voice as he stepped into the room after Emery and Evangeline.

Emery chuckled and slapped Victor on the back, smiling.

"Hey Emery, Evangeline, _Victor_…" I said in a very relaxed voice. I wondered vaguely where Chris was. Everyone was here but him.

I looked up into Damian's eyes as he gazed down at me.

"How was your trip?"

He smiled slightly, looking completely at peace.

"It went well. I hadn't seen the coven we met today in years,"

I nodded and smiled.

"Well, Samm, didn't you want to have a games night tonight? It appears you already won something," Victor laughed.

"Yes! I beat Marie at street racing. I remain undefeated; ha!"

Victor laughed harder and ran up to Samm, giving her a hug. She grinned and hugged him back.

"And yes, I wanted to have our game night tonight. But should we start without Chris? Where is he anyway?"

Damian frowned as he looked at Samm.

"He's not here?" It looked as if he was concentrating on the sounds in the house for a moment, trying to find his brother, but we were all here. There were no sounds besides the wind outside and the light drizzle of the rain that was beginning.

Samm shook her head slowly, looking concerned. Damian considered.

"When did he leave?"

"I think he left sometime after we left," I murmured, remembering seeing him in the morning.

He nodded.

"Then he either has gone on a long hunting trip, or he has gone to see Josie. I told him not to go see her; he could compromise everything."

Samm looked to him, her eyebrow raised.

"So…"

He rolled his eyes.

"And I'm sure he won't mind if we begin without him,"

Samm clapped her hands together and grinned.

"All right people, you know what to do!"

Basically everyone disappeared at that moment, and I looked up to Damian.

"Are you sure we shouldn't go looking for him?"

He shook his head, bringing his hand up to stroke my cheek.

"Don't worry about him. He can take care of himself fairly well, and I'm sure if he's gone out for a long hunting trip it's probably just to think by himself. He's gone through a lot lately; he had to leave Josie, and he's been particularly worried about her."

I nodded, understanding, and let a small smile appear on my lips as he leaned down once more to kiss my worries away.

"Who wants to play a good ol' game of charades?" Samm announced gleefully as she entered the room with two arms full of board games, a big grin on her face. I laughed and Damian let go of me only to take my hand.

I think we played everything from charades to hide and seek, or rather; man hunt is what they called it, which was extremely hilarious in my perspective.

Charades, the first game we played a few hours into the night since it was the most enjoyed game, was probably the most hilarious and enjoyable. Samm picked me as her partner, and it was surprising how well we could figure out what the other was saying.

The others admitted defeat regretfully, but Victor and Damian who had been partners, which had been a bad mistake since it was so awkward for them it was almost painful to watch, swore they would take their vengeance. I think Victor just really liked to take his vengeance on Samm at every opportunity, and well… Damian would get me anyway.

I think Damian picked up on that thought, and he grinned beside me as we hid up in the tree. At the moment we were playing man hunt. Samm had stated after everyone was found _this time_, we were to go inside where we were going to end off the night with poker.

"Move," He whispered, and took my hand.

We jumped up a couple more branches and then jumped into the next tree as we heard rustles and low whispering below us.

"There they are!" I think it was Victor who foolishly half whispered. This only made us run faster. The only way they'd be able to detect us is if they could see us. Other than that, we were absolutely quiet and didn't cause the branches to move violently or make any movement whatsoever when we landed on them. This was our only weapon, because after all, this was a vampire's sport; the hunt. It took a vampire to hunt another vampire successfully.

But unexpectedly, Samm popped out from behind a huge trunk and managed to tackle both Damian and I to a branch leading off the tree.

My eyes were wide and extremely shocked as I looked at Samm now standing victoriously over us.

"Ha ha! Everyone's caught! I caught the last two! So technically speaking you two won as well as me, but I'm the one who caught you so… in your face! I'm the supreme hunter!" She cackled and did a cartwheel off the tree.

I giggled at her childishness as Damian helped me up, pulling me up and into him.

"You have yet to take your revenge monsieur. You know how much I hate suspense,"

He laughed and swept me up in his arms, without my consent though I knew he was fully aware of that.

"You'll see."

And with that he jumped out of the very high tree and landed on his feet, with me still in his arms. With as much as I knew our capabilities, I was still surprised as he shot off in what I assumed to be the direction of the house.

We caught up with the others quickly at the speed he was travelling, and soon enough we arrived back at the house. I smiled as I looked up at him despite how much I hated being carried. He grinned as well.

But I raised an eyebrow.

"So I take it you have a plan?"

He nodded, knowing exactly what I was talking about.

"If I said I was going to take my revenge, why didn't you think I already had a plan in mind?"

I laughed again before he let me down in front of the back door way. Then I heard Samm whoop from inside the house, and announce loudly, "Now come on people, let's play some poker! _Woo_!"

It almost sounded like she was intentionally trying to sound drunk. Or maybe she was the real thing –Damian and I thought the same thing, and my grin couldn't get bigger as I realized the connection was getting stronger.

Damian opened the door for me, putting an arm around me as we walked through the threshold. We were back in the games room in an instant, and I could see that Samm had already set up a round table in the middle of the room. There were no lights in the room, so we were basically playing poker in the dark but not really. We could see as clear as if it was day in the dark.

I looked up into his eyes as we walked toward the table though. I could sense there was no one in the house besides the people who were already sitting in gleaming cherry wood chairs around the table. And not one of the people surrounding the table was Chris.

He grimaced and nodded.

"Do you want to look for him with me after the game if he doesn't turn up by then?"

I nodded. If we left now anyway, we'd be killing Samm's buzz and Chris was probably just out sitting in a tree somewhere mulling life over. We'd be interrupting his thought processes if we did that, and I'm sure he wouldn't be too pleased if we disturbed him and told him the reason why was because we thought he was out doing something reckless that could possibly get us all killed.

Damian quickly led me over to the table where we sat down and watched Samm do some fancy card shuffling tricks before she actually dealt the cards.

"Now, I'm trusting that no mates –Evangeline; Emery, Marie; Damian– will look into each others' thoughts."

We all nodded, but I rolled my eyes. Damian and I weren't quite there yet unfortunately. But still…

Damian had given me a few pointers of how to play poker before when we were playing a few different games. I had never played poker before, and the basic way he had taught me how to play was good enough. I won a couple hands, but in the end, Emery won the most.

He only smiled victoriously as he laid down his last cards, defeating us all. Samm groaned loudly and let her head drop onto the table.

"I have the worst luck."

Emery chuckled.

"It's just experience, dear. I used to be a drifter back in the day, when I was a child, so I really had to learn."

My eyes widened as I regarded him.

"Really? So how did Evangeline find you?"

He grinned and moved to put an arm around Evangeline.

"So she told you, did she?"

I nodded, still looking at him expectantly. I was curious about his past. For some reason I found it so interesting…

"Well, I was eventually adopted –taken off the streets by a wealthy family. I grew up, married, but just as soon became a widower. As Evangeline told it, my wife had gone out for a walk, and Evangeline wanted to talk to her."

Evangeline nodded, looking slightly sad.

"Truthfully, I was jealous. But I was basically walking around in rags, and hiding wherever I could in the daytime. I knew I didn't deserve him by a long shot… but I saw his wife taking a walk, at night and all by herself, and I felt an impulse to talk to her. It was a bad mistake, because my emotions made me unable to realize how exactly thirsty I was,"

I sat wide eyed, staring at her. I couldn't believe it for some reason.

Emery buried his head in her hair, kissing her head to comfort her before she went on.

"So you can imagine what happened. I felt remorseful though; I felt horrible because I knew this would hurt him. He found me lying in a ditch, weeks after they'd found her and buried her. He helped me; talked to me… the more he talked to me the more I fell in love with him. And well… you know the rest."

Emery smiled and Evangeline appeared slightly embarrassed.

Damian leaned over towards me as I smiled.

"We should go look for him now,"

I sobered and nodded turning my head to look into his eyes. He gave me a sombre look before he gave me a quick kiss and turned to the others who had gone silent for the most part.

"We're going to look for Chris."

Samm nodded, her eyes wide and serious.

"Do you need any help?"

He shook his head.

"No –he won't be pleased about us going to look for him yet alone a whole search party."

"All right then… well, be back soon." She winked, and pulled Victor up from the table with her.

We got up as well, and he took my hand before we ran out the door and into the forest.

"Where in the forest do you think he could be? We were hiding all over the forest…"

He bit his lip.

"I'm not sure. We're going to have to scope for him."

But it turns out we didn't have to wait too long. Not long after that, after we'd wandered the forest, hand in hand, almost listlessly, we found him sitting high up on a branch with one leg hanging off as he leaned against the trunk of the tree.

We stood, looking up at him, until after he wouldn't acknowledge us for a few minutes, and then Damian finally spoke.

"Hey brother. Having fun yet?"

Chris grinned with dark humour, and I was fairly certain I was missing something here.

"Why did you come looking for me when you knew I was going to come back anyway?"

Damian shrugged, although I was pretty sure I knew what the answer was.

"You missed games night." I murmured, knowing that even though he was high up in the tree he could still hear my statement.

"I'm sure they didn't miss me much. I know I'm not so fun to be around right now."

I knew why that was as well. I couldn't imagine what Chris was going through right now –constantly wondering if his own mate was alive.

"So are you going to come down any time soon, or are you going to sit here and brood for a few more days?"

Chris leaned his head back and closed his eyes.

"As much as that sounds appealing brother, I know you are going to drag me out of this tree no matter what my answer is."

"You know me well,"

Chris smiled darkly once more, but continued to stare up into the branches.

"Aww come on Chris. Don't be a spoil sport. I don't think anyone likes seeing you up there festering in your loneliness and apparent lack of interest in anything."

I didn't know if he took this as an insult or a joke, but really only a joke it was meant to be, however he only sighed.

Damian looked to me with amusement in his eyes.

"But really I am serious. No one likes to see you all alone up there–"

Suddenly his eyes popped wide and he held up a finger to silence me. His expression became steadily more horrified within the next few seconds.

"Go back to the house." He uttered slowly after a moment.

I frowned, and Damian looked just as bewildered as I was.

"What?" Damian muttered after a moment.

"I said go back to the house!" He shouted, jumping out of the tree with one of the utmost violent, enraged looks I'd ever seen besides Damian's. No one had topped that look yet –and it had been to his own brother too…

I looked up into Damian's eyes as Chris disappeared into the forest, having taken off at the speed of light to who knows where.

My eyes were wide as I watched Damian's face for an explanation. He knew his brother better than basically anyone.

"What happened? Did what I say cause that? What's going on?"

He wrapped a protective arm around me, pressing me tightly to him, and began to walk quickly back in the direction of the house.

His expression was deadly serious, and it instantly worried me.

"He sensed something was going on –and it was most likely through Josie."

I thought it might have been something like that. But still, I was shocked at how intense Chris had been back there.

"Shouldn't we follow after him?"

He shook his head solemnly.

"Whatever it was, he needed us to go back to the house. If he hadn't of said anything, or was that serious about it, I would be following him right now. He urgently needed us to go back to the house and I trust him on that."

I nodded as we reached the back lawn, and walked quickly through the doors.

And as if on cue, Samm walked around the corner, a big grin on her face which was immediately erased by our grave expressions. I was pretty sure I looked like death walking.

"… What is it?" She murmured after a moment of deep silence.

Damian answered her in a calm, emotionless voice. I knew he only acted like this when something dire was happening.

"Chris sensed something. He ran off into the woods –we don't know where he went."

Her eyes popped.

"Shouldn't we follow him?" She asked in a voice that noticeably raised a few octaves.

"No. He told us to come back here and for whatever reason we need to stay here."

Samm still looked astonished and flustered.

"I'll go tell the others."

Damian nodded and she disappeared. We ran just as fast to the couch opposite the door we just entered to wait.

I curled into him slightly as we sat, and he kept a strong, comforting arm around me.

Suddenly Victor appeared before us, just as unemotional as we all were now. Milliseconds later Evangeline and Emery were standing next to him, concerned expressions adorning their marble like faces.

"Is that all he said? Do we have nothing else to go on?" Victor muttered.

Damian nodded at the same time as me, and Victor's figure slackened, losing some of the tension as he flopped back onto another couch where Samm was now sitting, and took a deep calming breath.

"Samm made it sound like we were under attack."

Samm was in too serious a mood to hit him upside the head for the comment.

Damian sighed, and I laid my head on his chest, calming myself and him as he inhaled my scent.

"We just might be under attack. It could have been many possibilities, and he said no more about it. We might as well be ready for anything that happens."

They all fell silent and Emery and Evangeline made their way to sit beside Victor and Samm who were already sprawled out, taking up half the very large couch.

Samm couldn't hide how worried she looked. She didn't even mind that Victor had his arm around her –she probably wasn't even aware of it. She looked to be deep in thought.

It was same with everyone else –very vacant expressions, but no one could top Damian's emotionless stance. It was a good thing I knew him well, and that his thoughts were somewhat clear in my own head.

The whole time my head raced, thinking of possibilities of what happened, or what was going to happen. Could Nathaniel have found out where we were hiding by the connection between his daughter and Chris somehow? Were people already moving in, surrounding our house for the kill? What would they do to us?

Damian growled discreetly, low in his chest so I was the only one who could hear and he shifted slightly so he had more of a hold on me.

"You monster! You monsters! Get _away. From. Me!_" A woman's tortured voice screeched so loud it was ear shattering coming from outside the house.

We all jumped: me and Damian off the actual couch, dazed. It was surprising hearing such a shrill, awful sound come out of pure silence for most likely over an hour.

Then in an instant we were at the door, flinging it open to see who or what was making that horrid sound.

I was outright stunned as I saw Josie stumble out of the trees and shrubs, adoring very dirty and ripped clothing, half bent over and limping now quickly towards the door.

"Devils! Devils I say, leave me alone! Get out of the way,"

She screamed, dry sobbing as she reached the door.

She ran right into me and collapsed on me, holding onto me for support with her arms on my shoulders as she sobbed.

She somehow managed to push me down and we fell, me onto my knees and Josie onto her hands and knees, still holding onto my shoulder with one hand. It felt as if she was going to rip a chunk out of me, rip out my collar bone, and I grimaced and let out a pained noise, not able to contain myself.

"Josie…" Damian warned, lethal threat strong in his tone. His put a firm hand on her shoulder but she flinched it away. He then put a hand lightly on my other shoulder, ready to pull me away if need be.

"Help me… He's coming. He's going to get me again,"

"Josie!" He yelled, paranoia engulfing his voice and expression.

I could see exactly why then.

Her grip tightened so hard on my shoulder that I heard a crack and a ripping sound, and she withdrew her hand with the clothing, bone, skin and blood of my left shoulder.

I let out a half scream, covering my mouth as sheer pain coursed through me, and suddenly Chris was there, pulling Josie away from me and into his arms. She started wailing and thrashing her arms against him, and he held onto her as hard as he could before he ran into the house leaving broken me and Damian behind.

I collapsed onto the stone patio and began to hyperventilate, unwillingly, my thoughts incomprehensible as I began to panic. The pain increased in magnitude the longer my shoulder was exposed to the air. I didn't know what was happening.

Damian was immediately down on the ground with me, turning me over onto my back and grabbing the hand I was trying to cover up my wound with; I screamed again at the rocking pain. I trembled and shook violently all over as I heard other people arrive on the scene. I still heard screaming coming from inside, that was not my own.

"_Marie!_ Oh my god," I think that was Samm who yelled, and Damian let out an angry noise.

"Screaming is not going to do any good Samm! Get me a towel or something, and find the piece of her shoulder!"

_Marie, stop struggling, I'm here. Everything is going to be all right, just sleep… _

I still trembled and trashed against his hold, unable to control myself, trying to cover up my wound with my hand. I think tears ran down my face and Damian leaned down, kissed them away and tried to calm me down. But nothing could –I was experiencing horrendous pain, and I didn't know why.

Suddenly I felt pressure on my shoulder and it hurt even worse. I moaned and Damian hugged me to him, mumbling in my ear, "It's okay to sleep now. Go to sleep, love… Everything is going to be okay."

His voice flickered in and out slightly, and soon enough, I found his advice was the best I'd ever had. Within moments of him saying that, I felt numbness spread through my wound and in my chest. Within seconds I was floating with complete lack of sensation on a cloud: out like a light.


	6. Chapter 5: Love Lies In Violets

**Bahahaha... yet another embarrassing chapter to write. I was yet again, embarrassingly and red faced, writing shlum ...** O.o** I myself find that creeperish** -.-** but anyway, same goes with this chapter, just like chapter 3. And i know you liked chpater three because most of everyone stayed to read and didn't just go... **o.o**... ahaha... yah, review and tell meh whatcha think **;D** And I'll post the next chapter A.S.A.P if ya review quick enough, because i'm just that evil...** :P

**-jesca (**and yes, i like emoticons :) **)**

Chp 5: Love Lies in Violets

My lips parted and I inhaled deeply, almost gasping for air, and I felt a body lying closely next to me. The arms squeezed me, and I opened my eyes quickly to gaze into vivid green.

Damian looked straight into my eyes, his eyes appraising me slightly but mostly he looked relieved and concerned at the same time.

I stretched, and was surprised when I felt no pain –memories of that incident instantly popped into my head as I became aware.

"Damian…" I murmured, sounding groggy. This was ever more alarming.

He smiled and kissed me, and a small smile appeared on his lips.

"Good afternoon darling. How are you feeling?" His hand ran down the side of my stomach and I shivered, smiling lightly.

"Better now…"

I realized we were in our bed, wrapped under the blankets. It felt like I was going to blush, but I just lifted the blanket to look at my shoulder.

There appeared to be only a little fissure line in my very pale skin, but otherwise it was as good as new.

He regarded the scar, nodding minutely.

"That healed quite well actually."

I frowned, suddenly confused. There was so many things wrong with this situation.

"How did your power work on me? I thought it only worked on humans… and how did I fall asleep? The full moon is more than a few days away."

He ran his hand through my hair, as he sighed calmingly.

"There's one simple explanation for all of that –I think it's growing, becoming stronger. It never used to work on our kind, or it never even made someone fall asleep."

I nodded, gazing at him in awe.

"That's amazing."

He smiled wider and slowly trailed his hand up my arm and to my shoulder –the one that had just previously been dismembered.

I shivered as he finally reached my shoulder, and I watched as he slid his finger along my scar that disappeared as soon as he touched it: like magic. My skin was now as flawless as it had been. My eyes widened and he grinned, nudging my chin lightly over to kiss me.

"Oh my gosh… that was remarkable, wow… thank you."

"No need to thank me, love…"

We laid there awhile longer, talking every once in awhile. I had two more questions on my mind.

"How did all the veins realign properly? Won't I internally bleed?"

He only laughed and shook his head, saying that I was a vampire and that this sort of thing happens almost all the time… which was sort of horrifying, because dismemberment never used to be a common thing… and that we heal inside fairly fast if we attach the dismembered piece quickly.

"What about Josie? How is she, and what happened after I blacked out? How long ago was that?"

"You certainly are full of questions… and I'm not sure. The moment you blacked out I ran you up here and have been with you since –healing you. It took a few hours, but you've been sleeping longer than that. It's been about fourteen hours now," That surprised me a little bit.

"Do you want to get up and check on her? I think you're all right to get up and walk around now."

I smiled and nodded.

And then he threw the blanket off of us and picked me up, swinging me into his arms and running me downstairs. I wrapped my arms around his neck and laid my head on his chest.

We arrived in the living room to see Emery and Evangeline sitting together cosily on the couch.

As soon as Evangeline set eyes on me, she got up swiftly, a relieved and worried expression on her face.

Damian set me down gently beside him, and she walked hurriedly over to me, giving me a big yet gentle hug.

"Are you all right now? Are you feeling any better?" She asked, concern the main emotion. I nodded and hugged her back.

"I'm feeling all right now. Damian took good care of me,"

I pulled away and she smiled at me before she smiled at him.

"He always does."

I nodded, feeling like blushing for the second time today.

"Well… I was wondering if Josie was still here, and how she is," I mumbled in a shy voice. Evangeline gave me a half hearted smile.

"Aww… more concerned for the person who hurt you than about yourself."

I bit my lip, and as Damian saw that, he took my hand and held it tightly before Evangeline went on, "Josie is up in Chris's room, knocked out… After she'd … ripped off your shoulder, Chris brought her back in and I guess she finally had enough –she passed out. Chris has been up there with her ever since then. We've been going up to see how they were doing occasionally."

I nodded, looking up at Damian.

He nodded, understanding me immediately.

"We're going to go check on them."

Evangeline nodded, smiling at as before she joined Emery on the couch again. He nodded towards us as a good bye, and then Damian and I were running up the stairs and to Chris's room.

_She fell asleep? How could she do that? Did you put her to sleep somehow? _I thought, wondering vaguely if he could actually hear me. And to my delight, he did and answered.

_No, I definitely didn't. All my focus, and worry, was solely on you. I'm not sure what happened to her –but I know something is definitely wrong with her. The way she was talking… the way she was acting: it was totally bizarre. _

I nodded as we arrived at Chris's door, and Damian didn't waste any time as he knocked hastily on the door. We heard a small sigh from the other side of the door, and soon after we heard Chris's voice from the other side of the door, "You can come in, brother, but you might not like what you see."

Damian rolled his eyes and walked in. I walked slightly slower behind him, heeding Chris's warning.

We walked in to see Chris lying on his bed, over the blankets, and Josie sleeping peacefully nestled into Chris. She was curled into him, half lying on the bed and half lying on him. I raised an eyebrow, not knowing what I might not like about this scene.

"How is she?" I asked, walking ahead of Damian to the bed. He followed after me, and I stared at Josie, her face wiped clean of emotion.

Chris sighed roughly, angrily.

"She's not good, no matter how she appears to be. Her thoughts are erratic and all consist of the same thing: she doesn't what to be hurt anymore. And can you take a guess at who was hurting her?"

We shook our heads, coming up with a blank. Who in the world would hurt kind little Josie?

Chris's eyes narrowed, an angry expression taking over his once stoic expression.

"Her father –Nathaniel. I think he was doing some kind of tests on her. Look at this,"

He pulled up her sleeves to reveal large purple bruises. Both Damian and my eyes widened. How was that possible?

He grimaced as he saw our reactions, and then proceeded in pulling up her tattered uniform shirt a little bit to reveal her white stomach… with what appeared to be big swollen purple scars. My eyes widened further if that was possible –what could Nathaniel have done to her? Why was he such a monster?

Damian looked horrified as well.

"That's not the worst of it. Marie, come over here and put your ear on her stomach."

I frowned, my head jutting forward.

"What?"

He exhaled angrily.

"Just get over here, get on your knees and listen to what is in her." His voice was full of venom, and I could tell he was steadily getting angrier.

Damian shot Chris a warning look, almost glaring at him as he spoke to me like that.

I began to walk towards them. Once I got to the bed I knelt down on my knees and bent over slowly, feeling very awkward about doing this.

Then I pressed my ear to her stomach: and heard it. It was very, very faint, but still it was there. It was a tiny _thump-thump, thump-thump_… a heartbeat.

I gasped. How on earth was this possible?

I looked up to him slowly, my expression horrified.

"What… how… what is it?" I stuttered, completely blown away.

Chris looked deadly at that moment.

"I'm not totally sure but I have a pretty good idea."

I took in a shaky breath, appalled that Nathaniel had done this to his own daughter. How had he done it and why?

Damian got on the floor beside me after a moment, wrapping an arm around me protectively as if what he was seeing in front of him was me. He was just as revolted as I was: knowing what I had heard immediately in his own mind.

"… What are you going to do?"

His fist suddenly swung out from the side of him and he hit the wall, creating a large dent. The wall must have been made of some kind of metal –the wall only dented, no dry wall crumbled at the crushing blow.

"I don't know. Who knows? Maybe it'll just die."

That thought was very revolting, but how else would Josie survive? It was sucking her energy, her life force… making her go insane. Her body was not used to this, and from the look of the bruises on her arms, that should not have been there, she looked to have been injected by needles with something to make her body sustain whatever was living in her. It was a sick, twisted idea. Nathaniel must be disturbed in the head in some way.

"… Let's wait and see. We have to do some research, figure out what's going on inside her. I'll run this by Emery."

Chris looked down as Damian spoke.

"So… when do you think she will wake up? What should we do with her then?"

Damian shook his head slowly.

"I'm not sure when she'll wake up. I've never come across anything like this in my lifetime. I have nothing to go on."

Chris let out a little pained sound that was almost silent, and I looked at Josie's unemotional face.

"I'm so sorry for you Chris. I think I may know how you feel –after all, I was once losing my mate."

Damian shivered and squeezed me so tight, it seemed like he could never let go.

Chris glared at the blankets.

"Don't say that. She's not going to die. She can't,"

He stroked her face, and she made a tiny groaning sound as she moved, pressing herself closer to him. He smiled.

"That's the first time she's actually done anything since she passed out. I hope she's coming to."

Damian and I smiled slightly, before he pulled me up.

"We're going to leave you two alone now, and I'm going to talk to Emery about this. Maybe he'll know something."

Chris nodded, looking back down at Josie. She was now smiling slightly, and I could tell Chris was relieved somewhat besides the huge problem looming over his head that resulted from what was possibly growing inside her stomach.

But before I left the room completely, trailing a little behind Damian, still looking at Josie, Chris murmured, "And by the way, Marie, I'm sorry for what happened to your shoulder. Is it better now?"

I paused, turning to him and nodded, smiling slightly.

"If she wakes up, and possibly remembers what happened, tell her not to worry about it. I'm perfectly fine,"

Chris nodded, smiling slightly more happily as I left the room. Damian was right outside the door, waiting for me, and he grabbed me, cradling me to his chest before he took off once more. I smiled and let my head rest on his chest, not bothering to complain. I wanted to be as close to him as possible right now; and I never wanted what Chris and Josie were going through to happen to us. Ever.

x

"Hey Marie, Damian? What do you say about going to meet some of my old friends? They want to help us out, and Evangeline and I are going to meet some others…" Emery asked.

Damian looked down at me for an answer –he was always willing to do a favour for someone, so it was up to me if I wanted to go.

I smiled, nodding, moving closer to him. He wrapped his arms around me, nodding for Emery to continue. A smile appeared on his lips as he began giving us the directions.

"It will take a couple days to get there –it's in New Westminster. Meet them in a bar called The Phoenix. I think they'll recognize you, Damian; you've met them before. Trisha and Caleb."

Damian's face reflected realization, and he nodded. In his thoughts, since I was curious as to whom they were, I saw a woman with curly bleach blonde hair, bangs, and a man with very Romanesque looks and very brown, shaggy, surfer hair.

"Tell them what we've told everyone else so far –to meet us at the school in a month and a half. By that time, we should have as many people we need to take the council down."

But suddenly I remembered something.

"Isn't tonight the full moon?"

He didn't hesitate for a moment. It seemed he already had a plan in place.

"Don't worry love… we'll stop tonight and camp out."

I beamed up at him, and in my peripheral vision I saw Emery grin. For some reason it was always so amusing for people to see us together…

"Well, you'd better get going as soon as possible. We're going to miss you," Samm walked into the kitchen, slinging her arm around me and Damian.

I really didn't get how she could be so assertive and be able to control any situation, but yet she was so kind. She was no where near being stuck up and full of herself like most other people with this ability could be.

She smiled jovially at us, her eyes a dark, dark brown colour. She needed to hunt soon, though there really wasn't anything conspicuous about that colour.

"We're going to miss you too, Samm. What are you going to do while we're gone?"

Her head cocked to the side, calculating.

"I'm not sure really –probably hang out with Victor, as usual. And I know I have to go hunting soon –but other than that, I'll see how it goes."

I nodded, looking away from her to Damian. He was still staring down at me. My smile widened.

"Do you want to start packing now?"

He nodded, and I looked back to Samm. She nodded, wrapping her other arm around me for a quick hug, and then released me.

"I'll see you in a few days… I think I'll go hunting now. I have nothing else to do really,"

And with that she disappeared, and just as soon Damian and I darted up to our room and began packing. We packed in preparation for a couple days, and didn't bring much more than that. The phones Emery gave us were the extra items we brought. I had tried to convince Emery that he didn't need to buy me a phone, only Damian should have one since there was no where Damian went that I didn't go.

Maybe ten minutes later we were back downstairs, and Emery tossed Damian the keys to one of the various cars in the garage. He was standing next to Evangeline, hand in hand, a suitcase at their side.

"Take the BMW."

Damian inclined his head, murmuring a goodbye as I waved at them. Evangeline beamed and waved back. And then we were out the door.

We climbed into the sort of inconspicuous, sleek, black BMW, placing our luggage in the trunk first.

I relaxed on the black leather seats, smiling over at him as he turned the car on, bringing it to life. The engine purred, and he quickly backed out of the garage and sped down the long narrow driveway. He grinned as he pushed the car faster and faster, and I grinned along with him.

We must have driven for hours since we left at around three in the morning when it was still dark outside –I didn't bother to check the time. We witnessed the sun rise, giving us no problem obviously, and it was steadily getting darker. We stopped a couple times to gas up. And surprisingly I didn't have a problem trying to keep myself from massacring everyone who was at the gas stations… other than the people who stared at us, some with awe, some with lust. That irked me, but I tried to ignore it. Damian wrapped his arm around me, holding me to his side in an attempt to stop their stares and comfort me slightly. I glared frequently at the girls staring lasciviously after him, and he only laughed under his breath slightly and leaned in to kiss me, eliminating that problem. My glowers worked just the same though –their eyes widened and they either looked away immediately or ran away.

Damian was proud of me –I hadn't been around humans too much, and I could resist when I came into contact with them now.

I was leaned across the seat and the console, resting on Damian while I watched the world speed quickly by us. We had silent conversations every once in awhile, but mostly we sat in relaxed silence, perpetually happy.

Everything that would have blurred traveling at this speed before was clear to me now, and I enjoyed seeing everything fly past me clearly.

When it was starting to get dark, I finally checked the clock. It was eleven. Whoa –we'd been driving a long time…

I looked out the windshield, seeing the full moon looming up in the sky, and then gazed up at him in the darkness to see his face perfectly. I think I wanted to find somewhere to rest now.

His head turned to look down at me, and he smiled and nodded.

We turned off the road onto another back road, and continued driving awhile until we finally parked in a little part of forest where there were no trees. It seemed he had a plan. In his head, I could see a picture of a clearing he'd been to before.

He turned off the car, and in less than a second he was on my side, opening the door for me. I got out at a normal pace for once, and took his extended hand as he shut the door lightly with the other hand.

And then suddenly he swept me off my feet, using his arms to knock out my knees and then he caught me, cradling me to his chest.

I couldn't help my complaining.

"Hey! You know, I _can_ walk."

He rolled his eyes, expecting this, and grinned mischievously, his eyes glowing. I crossed my arms across my chest tightly, my lips set in a pout.

"Yes, I am fully aware that you can walk."

"I guess you have fun knocking me off my feet then, don't you."

He chuckled and nodded, his grin remaining as he took off into the forest.

There was no path, but he obviously knew the way. I could tell from his thoughts that he was still amused from my reaction of being carried, and I stuck my tongue out at him.

He laughed and continued running until we finally reached a glade. My eyes widened.

It was one of the most beautiful things I'd ever seen. The beauty was only amplified by the moonlight that shone on everything, illuminating and colouring everything silver.

The grass was fairly high and unkempt, and there were a few wildflowers. It also overlooked a small river, and we were able to look up at the star strewn sky without anything obscuring our view.

He smiled complacently, and set me down gently beside him.

"Do you like it?"

I could only nod in response, trying to keep my jaw from dropping.

I looked away from the stunning scene in front of me up to the most dazzling man who stood beside me. He only looked more divine in the moonlight.

He watched me with a contented, serene expression as he leaned down and picked a flower –a gorgeous violet.

"How did you ever find this place…?"

"I've been alive a long time… I've been almost everywhere in the world, seen the most beautiful places… But this place is my favourite."

I nodded, eyes still wide as he guided me further in. Once we were almost in the middle, we laid down. The grass was slightly dewy, but I couldn't care less. All my thoughts were focused on him.

For a bit we just laid on our backs, staring up at the sky. We would stare at each other's faces every once in awhile too.

And then he pulled me on top of him, his eyes hooded but smouldering, a lopsided smile on his face. I slowly trailed my lips down his cheek, around his lips… teasing him. Suddenly his hands were holding my face still so he could kiss me fervently.

"I have something for you," He murmured as he pulled away, looking deep into my eyes.

I felt like rolling my eyes slightly, despite the mood of the moment.

"Another surprise?"

He only smiled in response and ran his hair through my hair. Then he reached into his pants pocket with his hand and pulled something out, but kept it hidden from my view in his fist. He brought his hand up so I could see it, and moving his other hand, brought my hand up.

"Close your eyes for a moment,"

I actually rolled my eyes before I closed them this time. I felt something being fastened around my wrist, and I took a sharp inhale of breath as this brought back memories. I felt a sharp pang in my chest as I remembered what I had left behind.

He stroked my face calmingly as he read my thoughts, bringing his face close to mine to kiss my cheek, smiling.

"Open your eyes," He mumbled, his breath brushing against my cheek. I took a deep breath before I forced my eyes open.

What I saw took my breath away and made my eyes widen in surprise. It was _the_ bracelet. The one I had left behind.

And though I was really implausibly happy to have it back, it brought an unbelievable remorse to me. I had _left it behind_. And he had obviously visited his own tombstone and found it there.

I looked into his eyes with tears brimming over mine, my mouth hanging open.

"Damian… I am so sorry," I murmured, my voice shaking. He placed his hands on my back and in my hair, staring into my eyes soothingly.

"Shh… I understand love. It's all right…"

A few tears rolled down my cheeks before he leaned up and kissed me ardently, making me dizzy and momentarily forget where I was and what I was doing.

"If you don't stop crying I'm going to kick _your _vampire ass," He whispered jokingly, mocking my words from long ago which made me laugh loudly, breaking the tension.

He held me tighter to him and I kissed him lovingly. He was truly the most amazing person I would ever know.

"I love you," He smiled.

"And I love you… more than you will ever know."

That was it.

My hands moved to grip in his hair, and his arms tightened around me, bringing me closer to him. I hitched my leg on his hip just as he rolled us over.

The atmosphere, the space between us and around us seemed to intensify. It even felt like I was getting hotter.

I started to unbutton his shirt, and he rolled us over again to make it easier for me, then I managed to get it off, stripping it off him to reveal his perfect marble-like chest. You'd never know that he had a perfectly chiselled chest unless you took his shirt off –he looked a lot stronger than he did with a shirt on. His pale skin caught a ray of moonlight… he was absolutely breathtaking.

His hands trailed along my back, underneath my shirt… and then he slowly started to pull it up. I helped him, pulling it off the rest of the way, and he paused for a moment, just gazing at me.

Then he pulled me back in for a fervent kiss, one hand locked in my hair and the other trailing down my thigh, pressing my even closer into him.

But as I began to pull off my jeans his hands suddenly locked around my wrists, stopping me.

I looked into his eyes for an answer, slightly confused and I had to admit, upset.

He wrapped his arms around my middle, and flipped us so he was on top of me, facing each other. He was raised off the ground, supporting himself with one of his arms so he wasn't touching me where I laid on the wet grassy ground. His eyes were determined, yet yearning.

"Not yet."

I groaned.

"Why not? There's no reason _not_ to…"

"Not yet," He repeated, stroking my hair.

I looked into his thoughts for a reason. It only took me a moment to understand why.

"Oh… Oh, Damian. Don't you think that is mostly disregarded these days?"

The reason was that he didn't think it was right to have sex before marriage. But I didn't understand this because if we were mates, we were destined to be together for the rest of eternity anyway, so I didn't really think we would have to get married.

He shook his head, smiling as he relaxed and laid himself down on top of me once more.

"I've believed this when I was alive, and have continued to believe it all these years. I'm not about to change my view on this," He said smoothly.

I sighed, closing my eyes for a few seconds.

"So there's no changing your mind?" I half whispered. I felt him shake his head, and touch his lips softly on mine once more.

I exhaled slowly, and he continued to run his hand through my hair.

There was no arguing with him. I would just have to wait until we were _married_, and who knew when that would be…?

I immediately apologized to him in my head, for my thoughts were getting a little bitter.

He caressed my face.

"Don't apologize love… I want you as badly as you want me, you know."

_I probably want you more…_ He thought. My lips turned up in a small smile.

"Well, no I don't know actually… I don't intrude on your thoughts all the time. I give you your privacy occasionally."

I felt him smile.

We laid there for awhile, listening to each other's thoughts. Until he sighed, leaning down to kiss my neck. I shuddered, not able to help it.

"I think we should sleep now…" He murmured. I nodded, allowing that as I burrowed my head in his neck, pressing my bare stomach against his.

I really wasn't offended by him stopping me. I still loved him more than ever and maybe he was right in making us wait. I just couldn't help anticipating the moment –I wanted him so badly.

I felt his arms tighten around me, and him smile wider.

As soon as I'd closed my eyes, I drifted, and this time, nightmare free. And I believed this time, for good.


End file.
